Rotarian, Dr. Jeffery James Moses, Founder and President of Smiles International Foundation relayed that their pre-Thanksgiving Clinic where they served patients with cleft lip and palate issues was a blessing for the Smiles International Foundation's cleft mission team as well as their partner, Children’s Lifeline International. Patients benefitted from continuity treatment and long-term staged follow-up care throughout the course of the last 18 years by the team.
The Rotary clubs of Carlsbad California and Tecate Mexico, Districts 5340 and 4100, and many young adults forming the ranks of SAVG (Smiles Action Volunteer Group) help provide logistic support along with pre-clinic advertising.
During this clinic, 27 pre-screened children received specialty consultation, annual treatment planning and scheduling. 14 of them were deemed ready and received facial reconstructive procedures. These children were scheduled into an outpatient facility built by Rotary as a Centennial project of the Rotary clubs of Bakersfield, CA, and Tecate, Mexico.
Patients benefitted from the precision pediatric anesthesia by their anesthesiology team led by Dr. Nick Pollard. Then, with a surgical team led by Craniomaxillofacial surgeon, Dr. Andrew Campbell, an estimated 50 combined surgical procedures were able to be performed over the course of this clinic. Multiple procedures are given to each child, where possible, taking advantage of the anesthesia time allotted. Many children with this congenital facial difference require several surgical procedures applied at various stages of growth in order to achieve the desired final outcome of them entering their community with enhanced abilities to properly eat, breathe, hear, speak, and smile.
While the USA calculated value was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if billed privately, due to the volunteers all donating their expertise, the value of care donated to these children and their family's is incalculable.
Again, many thanks are extended to each volunteer and each sponsor for the opportunity to serve this deserving population.
