Healing the Children: Bringing Colombia the Universal Language of Smiles
Joseph J. Rousso, MD Fourth-year resident, ORL New York Eye & Ear Infirmary, New York, NY In February, a team of 27 volunteers from New York and Texas boarded two flights with one destination: the Hospital Universitario Fernando Troconis in Santa Marta, Colombia. The U.S.-based Healing the Children and the Colombia-based UNIMA organizations partnered for a surgical mission to Colombia’s north coast. On the late-night flights, the excitement was palpable. Many team members were repeat volunteers who have taken part in missions to the Colombia site since the partnership’s inception several years ago. The team was led by Manoj T. Abraham, MD, a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in Poughkeepsie, NY, who has headed up several mission trips around the world. Members included four attending surgeons (among them Augustine L. Moscatello, MD, and Andrew A Jacomo, MD), a facial plastic and reconstructive fellow, and a fourth-year otolaryngology resident. Also, a team of anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, pediatricians, speech pathologists, administrators, nurses, surgical technicians, and local Colombian volunteers contributed a large amount of time and effort to help these young patients receive the best care. More than 150 patients, many of whom had previously undergone surgery, were evaluated for speech and swallowing. In total, more than 100 surgical candidates were evaluated on one screening day, with 65 patients undergoing surgery over the course of four days. Most surgical patients needed complex repair of craniofacial malformations, particularly cleft lip and palate. In addition, the team also performed concurrent tympanostomy tube placement and cleft rhinoplasty for several patients. The patients made their way across the 8,953-square-mile Magdalena department for surgical evaluations. Many traveled for days, riding donkeys, walking through hilly terrain and extensive marshland valleys typical of the region, to get to Santa Marta, the capital of Magdalena’s 30 municipalities. Unfortunately, there is a wide disparity in access to healthcare in northern Colombia. Healing the Children, with its stated goal of organizing humanitarian medical missions to perform surgeries on needy children around the globe, has made a large impact on the youngest, most vulnerable of the impoverished indigenous inhabitants of the rural coast. There are no words to describe the gratitude on a mother’s face as she walks into the post-anesthesia care unit to see that her baby no longer has a cleft that prevents him or her from eating, speaking, and socializing within their very stigmatizing communities. The experiences we shared, the smiles that made us well up, and the difference that we all made in such a short time will forever be imprinted on our memories. We are all grateful to those who have motivated us to do whatever is in our capacity to help heal the children in need, worldwide. To learn more about Healing the Children, contact dbuffin@htcne.org or visit www.htcne.org.
Joseph J. Rousso, MD
Fourth-year resident, ORL
New York Eye & Ear Infirmary,
New York, NY
In February, a team of 27 volunteers from New York and Texas boarded two flights with one destination: the Hospital Universitario Fernando Troconis in Santa Marta, Colombia. The U.S.-based Healing the Children and the Colombia-based UNIMA organizations partnered for a surgical mission to Colombia’s north coast. On the late-night flights, the excitement was palpable. Many team members were repeat volunteers who have taken part in missions to the Colombia site since the partnership’s inception several years ago.
The team was led by Manoj T. Abraham, MD, a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in Poughkeepsie, NY, who has headed up several mission trips around the world. Members included four attending surgeons (among them Augustine L. Moscatello, MD, and Andrew A Jacomo, MD), a facial plastic and reconstructive fellow, and a fourth-year otolaryngology resident. Also, a team of anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, pediatricians, speech pathologists, administrators, nurses, surgical technicians, and local Colombian volunteers contributed a large amount of time and effort to help these young patients receive the best care.
More than 150 patients, many of whom had previously undergone surgery, were evaluated for speech and swallowing. In total, more than 100 surgical candidates were evaluated on one screening day, with 65 patients undergoing surgery over the course of four days. Most surgical patients needed complex repair of craniofacial malformations, particularly cleft lip and palate. In addition, the team also performed concurrent tympanostomy tube placement and cleft rhinoplasty for several patients.
The patients made their way across the 8,953-square-mile Magdalena department for surgical evaluations. Many traveled for days, riding donkeys, walking through hilly terrain and extensive marshland valleys typical of the region, to get to Santa Marta, the capital of Magdalena’s 30 municipalities. Unfortunately, there is a wide disparity in access to healthcare in northern Colombia. Healing the Children, with its stated goal of organizing humanitarian medical missions to perform surgeries on needy children around the globe, has made a large impact on the youngest, most vulnerable of the impoverished indigenous inhabitants of the rural coast.
There are no words to describe the gratitude on a mother’s face as she walks into the post-anesthesia care unit to see that her baby no longer has a cleft that prevents him or her from eating, speaking, and socializing within their very stigmatizing communities. The experiences we shared, the smiles that made us well up, and the difference that we all made in such a short time will forever be imprinted on our memories. We are all grateful to those who have motivated us to do whatever is in our capacity to help heal the children in need, worldwide.
To learn more about Healing the Children, contact dbuffin@htcne.org or visit www.htcne.org.