I am a nurse with about 20 years of experience in the OR. I now work as a registered nurse first assistant in reconstructive plastic surgery in Southern California. I started volunteering on medical missions in 1996 and have traveled to Honduras, Bangladesh, Haiti, and the Ukraine. Over the last 9 years, I have been volunteering with Operation Smile and have participated in 18 missions to countries such as Cambodia, Kenya, Jordan, the Philippines, Morocco, Colombia, India, China, and Ethiopia.
Operation Smile, founded in 1982 by Dr. William Magee and his wife Kathleen, provides reconstructive surgery for indigent children and young adults with cleft lip and cleft palates. For reasons that researchers don't fully understand, these birth defects are more common in developing countries where surgical repairs are considered an unattainable luxury. Yet, cleft lips and palates not only affect a child's appearance and self-esteem, they often hinder speech and the ability to eat.
A humbling experience
Working with Operation Smile has been an unending lesson in humility. We come from so much and serve a population that has very little. They only hope for a healthier life. My affiliation with Operation Smile has taught me to value people. We know we're blessed and now it's our privilege to give back.
Operation Smile assembles incredible multinational teams. They're made up of individuals that love children, have no underlying agenda, no politics, and are just there to serve these kids. The friendships that are developed are priceless.
The true joy of nursing
It's staggering to see the number of children that arrive at our clinic. There are literally hundreds. Our primary procedure is the repair of cleft lips and palates, but we see many severe deformities and syndromes.
All the precious children we see have a story. One of my favorites is that of a small Kenyan boy with a cleft lip. He lived with his father and two young cousins. His cousins were both burned in a fire and had multiple burn contractures. Upon hearing about the arrival of the Operation Smile team to Nakuru, the father collected his son and nephews and traveled for days by bus and on foot. All three of these young children were selected for surgery, and each child's surgery took place on the same day. At the end of the day, when I visited the postop unit, I saw this father sitting with his three boys and he was beaming. He said, "Look at my boys, my prayers were answered." Being a part of his joy is one of the major rewards of participating in this program.
In our plastic surgery office, we have a quote posted that says, "What we do is not so much to delight the eye of the beholder, but to buoy the spirits of the afflicted."