Saturday, February 25, 2012

3 Hours in the Operating Room

Lately, I have been feeling a little discouraged about the lack of Rotary service projects I have been able to partake in this year. The issue is that a lot of the projects sponsored by Accra Rotary Clubs are based on funding or implementing things like toilets, sanitation technology, and wells. Instead of playing with kids for a few hours or going to a soup kitchen (like is so popular in the US) Rotarians will go assess a project site by looking at what the club has funded. So, I have found it tricky to get involved thus far.  Usually I go to Rotary Fundraiser events such as masquerades or gatherings at Rotarians’ houses.
This week, I got my chance -- not to do the work firsthand but to see some totally awesome super amazingly cool service. This week, volunteer surgeons, nurses, and dentists came from all over the world with an organization called Alliance for Smiles. Rotary Clubs in Accra have partnered with them to give free surgeries to anyone in Ghana who has a cleft lip or palette.
They had advertised in churches, schools, and communities in all regions of Ghana, telling people that they would be given free transportation and surgeries to repair their mouths if they desired. Patients of all ages showed up. It was heart wrenching and heart warming at the same time. Some children said that they had no friends- that people were afraid of them and could not look at them in the face. “People do not like me around,” one said.  One patient was 39, meaning she has lived through all sorts of stages with that problem. Some patients actually had teeth in their cheeks and holes in their faces that made eating nearly impossible.
I donned my scrubs and accompanied the surgeons in the operating room.

Me and Rotarian Moses. 


I saw the patients from stage one until finish, when their mouths looked amazingly normal (minus the blood and stitches).
note: the nose is to the bottom of the picture, with the mouth right above it


The surgeons were incredible and the atmosphere was light.  Bluegrass music was playing, prompting one surgeon to inform the Ghanaian technicians about the history of each singer and their involvement with World War II.  The anesthesiologist was from Brookfield, Wisconsin, right next to my hometown.
One surgeon also gave me some background on cleft lips while he was operating. Apparently 1 in 800 Africans are born with the disfiguration. It is the same statistic with white Americans, but African Americans only experience 1 in 2,000 because cleft lips are genetic and it is likely that most African Americans with cleft lips did not survive through slavery in the US. Doctors used to think that there was a part of the mouth missing when in actuality the muscles are merely attached in the wrong places. These simple surgeries cut the muscles and stretch them back in place.
One of Rotary’s 5 avenues of service is vocational service.  (The others are club service, community service, international service and new generations service.) This was the perfect example of how practicing high ethical standards in a vocation allows you to use your skills to do good.
The project will continue for a total of 2 weeks. This is their third time to Ghana.

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