DEPARTURE DELAYED

Because of the winter storm set to hit the northeast tomorrow, our trip has been pushed back one day. Instead of leaving in the wee hours of Friday March 26th, we will be departing early morning, Saturday March 27th. While this setback will make re-coordinating all of the team members' travel plans challenging, morale is still high and the reason for our trip is only more prevalent in all of our minds. T-minus three days!

Packing Party

Packing, packing and more packing. With the amount of medical work that we will be conducting in Belize it is no wonder the amount of supplies that needed to be packed before our trip. Thank you to Greg - for hosting and leading, Lisa & Chris for managing the collection/tracking of the supplies, and to Barbara, Mary and Dane for packing packing packing.

Photo: (left to right)

Dr. Lisa Rangel
Barbara Berger - hygienist
Dr. Chris Wyckoff
Dr. Greg Keiser

Dane Buffin

Belize - Punta Gorda, Spring 2010

In less than a week Healing the Children Northeast will be sending a team to Punta Gorda, Belize to provide the children of the surrounding area with dental care.

Meet the Team...

Gregory J Keiser is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon who has practiced for over 20 years. He is also the team leader. For the past 15 years he has led cleft lip and palate trips and dental missions throughout South and Central America, Africa and Asia. Greg currently serves on the Board of Directors for Healing the Children Northeast and is the Director of HTCNE’s Medical Advisory Committee.

“These services are desperately needed around the world. It is my goal to establish rotating visits to several counties so as to provide ongoing care and to educate these populations about disease eradication and prevention. My inspiration to continue this journey all began after repairing a cleft lip on a 2 month old. Following which her mother said in a tearful Spanish, ’thank you for giving me a perfect baby back.’”

Rebecca Trimarchi of Carmel NY, will also be assisting with dental work. She has been working with HTCNE since 2007. Hooked on the mission behind HTCNE’s work, Rebecca hopes to join many trips in years to come.

“I think it is great what HTCNE does and stands for. I grew up in a small town and have had many people in my life that have helped to guide me along the way and become the person I am today. With each mission I hope that I can leave a lasting impression on at least one child that will help them in their journey through life.”

Lisa Rangel is a dentist form Morristown, NJ. She has joined Healing the Children in Cambodia in 2006 and Madagascar in 2007. While in dental school she organized free oral cancer screenings at a homeless shelter in West Philadelphia.

“There are too many children who do not have access to basic medical and dental care. As a citizen of this global community, I feel I should help in any way I can.”

Ray Lawrence is a dentist from Rocky Hill CT. He will be providing another ample set of hands to the on site dental work. He previously volunteers with APECA on a trip to Peru.

“I have traveled a fair amount, and I am always moved by the poverty and illness that is out there. I often wonder how we got so lucky to be born in a country with so much.”

Victoria Keiser will be joining her father, Greg Keiser as a member of the team this spring. She is training to become an EMT and will be attending Boston University in the fall.

“I went to Peru with HTC in 8th grade and Guatemala last year and my experiences there have changed my life. I am looking forward to continuing my education and becoming a doctor, and one day I plan to go on these mission trips as a doctor and maybe even lead one!"

Kristin Schrock, a dental hygienist from Northern Indiana is also a returning HTCNE volunteer. Her background in humanitarian mission work includes trips to Guatemala and Uganda.

Dana Buffin is the Executive Director of HTCNE. Along with her husband and 5 kids (3 bipedal and 2 furry canines) she lives and works in New Milford, CT. She is an ambitious humanitarian who explains her life’s work most eloquently in her own words.

“I see myself as a broker of humanitarianism; I know there are kids in need and I know there are folks who have the skills to help them. I like to bring them together. — I think our culture is one of the most generous of all. Nowhere else in the world is the spirit of volunteerism greater than in the United States. When our country gets such a bad rap, I think of the thousands of kids throughout the world whose lives our volunteers have touched. There are kids whose smiles are brighter, jumps are higher and sprints are faster because of our volunteers. I am proud to be a part of something so good.”

Haley Marks will be providing the trip with up to date blogging as well as multimedia accounts of the miraculous work being done on site. She is a recent graduate of the University of Delaware where she wrote a global awareness blog for the student newspaper.

Our Last Day at Sergio E. Bernales National Hospital

Our three ORs were bustling from morning to night with five cases, three of which were the most time-consuming and challenging we had all week. Our entire team and our Peruvian partners tirelessly collaborated with and observed one another all day by the end of the evening even the most complicated cases emerged from the ORs successfully. Our time with our Peruvian colleagues ended with another round of heartfelt messages from the Dr. Rivera and Dr. Landa and then a night of dancing - both viewing and participating - at a local club.

Onward to Cuzco!

Everything is Underway...

Day 3: "Patients, Patients, Patience"

Things got off to a smooth start today. We started the day in the pediatric clinic doing rounds. All of our patients looked great and were discharged by the afternoon! In total we finished 5 of the scheduled surgeries and had to bump the remaining two to the next day due to incomplete paperwork.

That didn't seem to deter the patients and their families. They were very gracious about it and completely willing to wait the extra day. They are the most patient of patients.

While we were waiting for the bus to pick us up at the end of the day some of our team challenged a group of kids that were playing soccer in a nearby field to a match. In the evening we enjoyed a wonderful dinner in downtown Peru and headed back to the hotel to rest up and prepare for the long day ahead.

Day 4: "The Big Push"

FULL day... and we were short staffed to boot. Elaine, one of our recovery nurses, got sick overnight and had to spend the morning in bed hooked up to an IV. Thankfully she bounced right back and was back in the recovery room by the afternoon! In total there were 9 cases today - most of the team members worked through lunch and/or dinner to get everything done in time. Success!

Greetings from...

... Lima, Peru!

This is Seta, your friendly neighborhood blogger, coming at you whenever and wherever there is reliable internet access (hence the delay).

Day 1: On our way to the hospital

Today is the team’s third day in Lima. Speaking of the team, let me introduce our fabulous crew:

Our volunteer surgical team, lead by Dr. Manoj Abraham of Poughkeepsie, NY and 17 of his colleagues are screening and surgically treating over 30 children with cleft lips and palates and other facial deformities.

Joining Dr. Abraham - facial plastic, ENT are:

John Bortz, MD - ocularplastic

Lianne Deserres, MD Pediatric ENT

Doug Borg, MD anesthesia

Augustine Moscatell, MD ENT

JP Grimaldos, MD anesthesia

Oscar Fimbres, CRNA

Wayne Martin, MD anesthesia

Mosses Bairamian, MD anesthesia

Debbie Fritz, RN

Amber Isdell, RN

Chikela Cody, CST

David Fenner, MD Pediatrics

Elaine Suderio Tirone, RN

Tamara Faublas, Rn

Kerry Lynn, Assistant

Seta Bairamian, Assistant

Dana Buffin, administrator

Our team of volunteer medical professionals are working in the Hospital Nacional de Sergio E Bernales with the support and assistance of the local surgeons, hospital staff and two local Rotary Clubs.

The team is prepared to provide surgical treatment to 30 or more children suffering from facial deformities, mostly cleft lips and palates and will make a presentation to the Head and Neck Association of Lima.

This is the first time this team will work in this location in Lima. We look forward to developing a positive relationship that will permit our volunteers to return year after year to treat the local children and to exchange techniques and knowledge with the local medical professionals.

Recap Time.

Day 1: “The Day Our Luggage Got Stuck in Customs”

Our first day at Sergio E. Bernales National Hospital began with a warm welcome from the hospital's president, Dr. Pablo Rivera, as well as our on-site host supervising physician, Dr. Landa and his medical team of local doctors and nurses.

Dr. Pablo Rivera welcomes HTCNE

Dr. Abraham and Dr. Deserres screening a patient

Half of our team went on to prepare the operating rooms with the supplies we had while Dana, our trip coordinator, waited patiently at the airport for the rest of our medications and supplies to make it through customs (which proved to be a long and difficult task). The other half of the physicians and nurses gathered in the pediatric clinic and screened 14 patients, all of whom will be operated on in the coming week. The team is also prepared to screen any additional patients that may arrive throughout the week.

Some of the children are just a few months old, some are old enough to take advantage of the coloring books we’re giving out, and some are teenagers. All are accompanied by moms, dads, siblings, aunts, and uncles. Walking down the hallway of the pediatric clinic, when you look into every room you see a gaggle of relatives crowded around the hospital bed of their child. It’s amazing. We will also have enough time and supplies to work on some adults in need of facial reconstructive plastic surgery, so our patients really are from all walks of life. The journeys of the patients and their families are incredible. Some of them traveled over a day by bus to be seen by the team.

Day 2: “The Day Our Baggage was Still Stuck,” or, “The First Day of Surgeries”

Today we woke up bright and early for our 45-minute bus ride to Comas, the section of Lima where the hospital is located. Comas is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Lima.

Dana did an awesome job retrieving our luggage full of essential medications and instruments, which then had to be screened by the hospital. Since this is our first mission to this location so we anticipated we would spend some time ironing out details and communicating with our Peruvian colleagues. But the rest team still managed to get the surgeries started relatively on schedule.

Assistant Kerri meticulously organized all the medical supplies as they came in after passing their inspections. We have a big room for our suitcases that are overflowing with bags and bundles of everything from sutures to stuffed animals. Dr. Bortz, ocular plastic surgeon, Dr. Bairamian, anesthesiologist, and Dr. Moscatello did five cases (back to back!). Most were eyelid and eyebrow revisions on adults. Some residents from Sergio E. Bernales Hospital sat in on these surgeries and Dr. Bortz explained the procedures. They were finished with the surgeries by the late afternoon and Dr. Bortz headed off to give a presentation to physicians in another local hospital and he and Dr. Bairamian were lucky enough to enjoy dinner with several Peruvian physicians.

The rest of the team spent the evening continuing to repair lips and palates on infants and children between 3 months and 8 years old, removing a cyst from the forehead of an infant, and investigating a mass on the neck of a 4-year old girl (which turned out to be benign).

The little ones were rolled one by one out of the operating rooms and into the recovery room, which was expertly decorated by our recovery nurses, Elaine and Tamara. Once the children were adequately recovered, their mothers were able to come in. Watching these mothers see their sons and daughters for the first time after their surgeries was unbelievable. These kids, these families, have new lives now. It’s incredible.

The last group of surgeons and nurses finished their final procedure around 8pm and stayed for 2 hours of post-op care. In total we successfully completed twelve cases today.

Good news all around.

And now a message from Debbie:

For all of our colleagues at FASC and Vassar, we want to let you know that we are giving a very good mission and helping many children. Thank you for all of the support and assistance that you have provided us with accomplishing these goals. We couldn’t do this without you! See you all soon!

To everyone supporting us, thank you.

My name is Charlotte Dibb and I am interning at Healing the Children because i am very interested in International Affairs. I am working here because my school has us do an internship with a place that we are interested in a career with I go to school at Washington Montessori school in Connecticut and i am in 8th grade.

I spoke with a few people that went on the recent trip to Belize and they were telling me that it takes a lot of people to make an operation of this kind happen. I talked to Dr. Jane Petro, who is a plastic surgeon, and went on this recent trip. She was the team leader of this trip so it was very interesting to talk to her.

Dr. Jane Petro said that her favorite part of the trip was helping the kids that they worked with and then looking at them after they had their operations done. She also liked traveling to all of the different places.

She also said that it was very rewarding to see the people with their brand new smiles and all of the different smiles that they had. Dr. Petro also said that it was very difficult to put the child to sleep and then operate on them. She also said that it was very hard to put the little babies to sleep.