We are missing the children & their families already but we are still feeling elated after another successful surgical mission. The week ran very smoothly & we operated on 76 children & adults.
The team was really pleased to see many familiar faces & be able to catch up on how the children have been after their surgery last year. We are blessed to be able to dramatically transform the lives of so many children.
Meet Jake Pellegrino (photo below) we met him last year for his lip repair & were excited to see him again for his palate repair. He looks amazing & is as cheeky as ever.
Photos of Jake before the surgery, 1 day after & 1 year after the lip surgery, awaiting his palate surgery.
We held the surgical mission at UC Med Hospital with the support of AMRO, Rotary, our Filipino charity partners. As always our Australian Smile for Me team was joined by our surgeons from Operation Restore Hope USA. On screening day we were joined by the clowns who entertained the children during the long day.
During the week we operated on 76 patients, of which 43 were boys & 33 were girls. We did 19 cleft lip repairs on girls between 2 months to 2 years old, 3 girls aged between 3 to 10 years old & a 21 year old. We did 2 cleft palate repairs on 3 girls aged between 1 to 2, 6 between the ages 3 to 10 & 1 over 11.
We also operated on 24 boys aged between 2 months old & 2 years old with cleft lip repairs, 2 boys between 3 & 10 years old, and 3 older than 11 with our oldest 24 years old. Of the palate repairs, we did 3 cleft palate repairs on boys between the ages 1 to 2, between the ages 3 to 10 we operated on 7 boys, & 3 over the 11 including our oldest at 34 years old.
We also did a rhinoplasty on a 12 year old girl Elisa & a facial cleft repair on 9 year old Christian Dave. He will join us again next year for the next stage of his facial cleft repair. Many of the children with cleft lip repairs will return again next year to have their palate repairs. We look forward to seeing them & hearing from them during the year to come.
We love being able to give back our time & skills & feel so lucky to be part of this each year. We will update you with stories of some of the families & the children throughout the year.
The team this year on our final day.