89 Lives changed so far!

      As of today (Wednesday), we have completed 89 surgeries and screened 134 patients. It has been five busy days filled with incredible moments and people.

     I have seen many older patients arrive for screening; patients who have lived 25, 45, 60 years with their cleft. The infants are innocent. The brutality of the world has not yet impacted them and they are unaware of the deformity they have been born with. They laugh, play, and giggle like any child, free from the knowledge that they are different.

As age increases, so does the impact of the harsh world we live in. Some patients as young as 4 years old are aware that they are different and enter screening shy and apprehensive. As the week progresses, they open up in the presence of other children with clefts and their personalities shine through.

Many older patients are reserved and quiet. Some cover their clefts with scarves. The language difference is more pronounced as we cannot communicate as efficiently through play as we do with the smaller children. A smile truly is the only language we all have in common. A simple smile goes a long way in making a connection with patients. The older patients befriend each other, oftentimes the first people they have seen that look just like them. It is common to find these patients playing cards and hanging out in the shelter. In the postoperative ward, many of the older patients continuously express their gratitude to the nurses, surgeons, and the student volunteers.

    Lakshmi, a 45-year-old man, quickly won over the hearts of the volunteers. He was shy and nervous throughout screening and hobbled from station to station, a deformed foot hindering him. He was the first older patient to come through screening and everyone was eager to know his story. We discovered his intriguing story when Archna, the local programs coordinator saw him.

Archna spends months recruiting patients to come to the missions. She helps set up partnerships with district government accredited health activists whose relationships with local villagers enables them to spread the word efficiently about Operation Smile.

     It was on a recruiting mission to the district hospital in when Archna first met Lakshmi. He had worked in a vegetable stand inside the Hospital grounds for over thirty years, but it was not until Archna informed him of Operation Smile that he realized that his cleft lip could be fixed. Lakshmi lived his entire life thinking his cleft was permanent. When he heard the news he was skeptical but Archna was able to convince him to travel to Bhubaneswar for the mission.

      Lakshmi never attended school, as he was the son of a poor subsistence farmer. He was the only child in his area with a cleft and the children in his village teased and mocked him endlessly and made his life miserable growing up.  He found relief in the fields harvesting rice with his father out of the view of his misunderstanding peers. Until her boarded a bus to come to the mission site, Lakshmi had never traveled far from his village. He traveled six hours by bus before arriving at the hospital.

Since his arrival at the hospital his cheerful demeanor and big smile drew everyone in. One day, I walked into the shelter, and Lakshmi had organized an impromptu card game with the high school volunteers. When asked to take pictures he would reply yes with a slight nod of his head and smile. Lakshmi was scheduled for surgery at the end of the day and did not complain once about his thirst or hunger. He waited patiently for his turn for surgery and smiled hugely when we dressed him in a boa and sunglasses.  After a mini photo shoot he asked for a picture of himself. We remembered that the medical records volunteer had brought a Polaroid camera on the mission and ran to get it. His excitement over receiving the picture was priceless and he clutched it to his chest tightly. When his time came for surgery, he stood up confidently and walked into the operating room. The following day in post-op he perked up when he saw us and gave us a high five.

    Each year in India, approximately 35,000 children are born with a cleft deformity; 1,500 in the state of Odisha, where this mission took place. Additionally, there is an estimated 20,000-person backlog of cleft patients in this region. This week we saw patients of all ages, including numerous older patients, which is uncommon. Operation Smile began working in Odisha a year and a half ago and will determinately reduce the number of people living with clefts here in the years to come and change hundreds of lives like Lakshmi’s.

Lakshmi

Reya's Story

Families sat and waited in rows of chairs for their turn to be screened for surgery. Amongst the sea of anxious faces, one little girl’s bright smile immediately caught my attention.  She smiled one of those smiles that would melt anyone’s heart—smiling through her cleft lip as if it weren’t even there.

I blew bubbles into the crowd and the most amazing laughter floated up at me. I looked down and saw the most beautiful smile. As soon as I blew that first bubble she took off giggling and popping them all. From there on out it was all fun and laughter for Reya and the volunteers.

Reya is a happy, curious, and beautiful little girl.  Despite her wonderful smile, Reya has extra cause to be weary of the world – her facial deformities – a cleft lip and palate have made the world a not-so-beautiful place for Reya and her family. Screening was the first time Reya had seen another child with a cleft and she felt normal and completely accepted for the first time in her life.

            Her father recalls the first time he saw his daughter and the pain of the memory is tangible and displayed across his face. Reya’s cleft came as a surprise to the family. They had never seen a cleft before and they were both frightened and guilty – blaming themselves and their actions, sitting outside during an eclipse moon, for their firstborn’s deformity.  Because the moon was not full, they reasoned, Reya was not completely formed; like the moon a piece of her was missing.

            Despite being shocked at the sight of his daughter, Hernata, fell in love with Reya immediately. He knew he had to do whatever it took to repair her cleft lip and palate. The doctor present at her birth assured the family the deformities were easy to fix with a simple surgery. However, his heart fell because he knew he could not afford the surgery that would change his daughter’s life. When an announcement was made in his village that Operation Smile would be hosting a medical mission providing free reconstructive surgery for children like Reya he grabbed his chance. Although he found out about the mission four days prior to its start, he acted quickly and the family boarded a bus that would take them 13 hours away to an unknown city for a new chance at life.  His love for her was evident throughout the week.

            The morning of her surgery Reya bounced around playing in the child-life play area. She grew tired as many patients do before surgery without food or water and slept peacefully on her fathers shoulder. When it was her turn for surgery, he handed her to Jennifer, a volunteer student sponsor, and watched as his daughter was carried into the operating room. It was not until later that I discovered how much strength it took him to give up his little girl for surgery. One year ago, Reya’s little brother passed away. The family knows vividly the pain of loosing a child yet found the courage to hand their daughter to surgeons and trust completely in them to take care of her and change her life.

After being brought into surgery the family waited outside. If they saw me walk by they anxiously grabbed my arms looking at me for any information I had about Reya. I assured them that she was well taken care of and would be out of surgery soon. When Reya’s father saw her for the first time after her surgery he struggled valiantly not to cry in front of us. He succeeded until he held her and tears streamed down his face. After Reya woke up, I went outside to get her mother. She looked up and saw me, her eyes grew big, her face lit up and she hoisted her Sari up and ran towards me, towards her daughter.

            After leaving the recovery room to find Reya’s grandmother she grasped me into a tight hug and exclaimed over and over again, “Thank you, Thank you.” We walked down the hallway and she repeated her thanks, hugging everyone she saw in the hallway.

            We handed Reya a mirror after she woke up and she grabbed it, pulling it towards her as she stared at her new, transformed smile. She was transferred from recovery to the post-operative ward in her father’s arms. Her mother held his hand grinning a smile we had seen mirrored so many times on Reya’s beautiful and joyful face.  Reya leaned forward and whispered something in her father’s ear. An incredible moment that took on new meaning when I talked to her family later that day.

            A few months before her surgery Reya began asking her parents to fix her smile before she began to school. Her dream was to attend school and fit in with her classmates. She did not want to be viewed as different or teased by her peers. As her father carried her down the hallway, she whispered to him, “Papa, I can’t wait to go to school.”

Going through the screening process. 

Reya and a new friend!

Off to surgery

Reya's mother hugging clinical coordinator Lisa Friessen.  

Moving to the post0operative ward. 

Getting ready to leave the hospital. 

Surgery Day One! 25 New Smiles!

Surgery week began today and what an amazing day it was! 25 patients received life-changing surgery today.

I spent a lot of the day in the Child Life room. For those unfamiliar with Child Life Specialists, they help to prepare patients and their families for upcoming procedures through play therapy and other educational means. Their role on a mission is to help the child feel at ease and to understand the procedure ahead. The child life room is toys and crafts and the patients wait here before going into surgery.

Many patients I met during screening had surgery today and it was great to be there to see them continue on their journeys with Operation Smile. While soothing and playing with the patients I witnessed many memorable moments.

A 21-year old girl named Samita began to cry as Holly, the child life specialist, described anesthesia and surgery to her. She was terrified of the upcoming procedure but Holly was able to reassure her she would be just fine. When she was called in for surgery she stood up bravely from her crafts and walked right into surgery. Her courage was astounding.

An 8-year-old boy with a facial deformity lay in his mother’s lap sleeping peacefully. She gazed at him contentedly for hours and her love for him shone through. When he went to surgery, she collapsed on the floor and began to pray fervently.

When Ria’s father saw her for the first time after her surgery he struggled valiantly not to cry in front of us. He succeeded until he held her and tears ran down his face. When I went to get her mother she looked up at me and I waved her towards me. Her face lit up and she ran towards me so we could go see her daughter. After visiting her daughter in the recovery room she hugged me tightly and exclaimed, “Thank you, thank you.” She did the same to Lisa, the clinical coordinator, and Virginia, the program coordinator.

13-year-old Rakesh grabbed hold of student volunteer Daniel Sasoon’s camera. Together they took photos of everything for hours. In the recovery room, I handed him a mirror and he held it for a long time just staring at his new smile. After surgery, we visited him in post-op and he asked Daniel for his camera by making symbols with his hands. When Daniel picked up his camera to let him play  a huge smile spread across his face.

A 45-year-old man was one of today’s last patients. His smile lit up the room instantaneously and he joked around for hours with us. Medical Records has a Polaroid camera and I gave him a picture of himself. A smile spread across his entire face as he clutched the image tightly to his chest.

These are only a few of the incredible moments I shared with patients and their families today. As a student journalist, I have been able to observe the intimate relationships volunteers forge with patients and their families. Parents express emotional extremes of worry and excitement, fear and joy. I had the opportunity to talk with several patients today and the universal love of the parents for their children was undeniable. It is indescribable and transformative to witness lives changed before my own eyes.

We have 4 ½ more surgery days to complete and many more lives will be transformed.  The days are long and tough, but as volunteer clinical coordinator, Lisa Friessen said today” energy is not limited when passion enters the equation.” I am incredibly blessed to be working with a group of passionate volunteers from around the world and our energy this week is truly limitless.