I served as executive director of “‘Healing the Children, Northeast” for 7 years. We organized international surgical and dental missions to places such as Peru, India, and even the Amazon. There have been many amazing experiences. One of my favorite stories was from a surgical mission to Peru … it makes me cry when I think about it.
We were in Lima, Peru for a volunteer surgical mission. It was day 5, the last surgical day. I speak Spanish so I was the one doing the intake and interpreting. One of the hospital workers asked me to talk to a mom that had just walked in from nearby. I told him that our schedule was already full and we couldn’t take any new patients. He insisted because the baby was 8 months old and had a bilateral cleft lip. His mother only heard the night before that we were in town. I talked to the mom and she said that her son, Jhair, was found to have a murmur when he was supposed to have his primary lip repair done at 4 months old. At that time, her husband had been a police officer and they had insurance but her husband lost his job and lost his insurance. Jhair was now a surgical candidate, but they couldn’t afford to have it fixed. My heart was breaking. I told myself to keep it together and not cry in front of her. Then I made the mistake of asking if Jhair had anything to eat that morning and he hadn’t. That meant he could go into surgery that day if we had a spot. I looked at the schedule and we only had one more surgery left for the day. I took photos of him and sent them to the surgeon, Dr. Manoj Abraham, the team leader. He said “you decide who comes off the schedule”. The person on the schedule happened to be a 19 year old hospital worker who was scheduled for a cleft lip revision. When you see a lip repair that is not well done, it is obvious. His was not well done. The revision would have made a big difference for him. I told him the story about Jhair and asked if he would be willing to give up his surgery spot. He said “Absolutely. How could I not give him this opportunity?”
The fact that a 19 year old was willing to give up his spot blew me away. When I went back to tell the mom, within 10 minutes, the baby was taken back in pre-op and was in surgery in 30 minutes getting his cleft lip repaired.
When Jhair’s mother walked into the OR and saw her baby for the first time, the smile on her face was enormous. We have pictures of her from that moment. And, it’s a moment etched forever in my mind. It had been a tumultuous week. We had some really, really sad cases. To know that Jhair’s life would be changed from that surgery was so fulfilling. It was pretty amazing and everyone on the team felt that one. The hardest part of these missions is having to say no to someone and not having to say no in this instance felt really good.
HTCNE volunteers not only pay their own way to join the missions, they use their vacation time, collect supplies and equipment, and raise funds to make the missions possible. Some volunteers manage to join two or even three missions a year. I imagine it’s because it allows a chance to reconnect to pure medicine. And, to witness a first time volunteer experience the full set of emotions only to end the week already committed to the next mission is equally as rewarding as witnessing a mom see her child for the first time after having a cleft lip repaired.
The friendships I’ve made… you laugh, you cry with them. We got into some pretty hairy situations, but you make a family. It was a really good thing. I left the organization when we moved to Dubai then to Texas, but there’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll go back to doing it again.”
Story: Amita Shah, Dana Buffin Photos: John Buffin, Craig Copelin nilepoc.com
You can also read about Jhair’s story on Facebook
