Here is an article I wrote for The Spokesman-Review on the Guatemala trip, specifically about the oral surgeons and those from Spokane who contributed to the trip prior to departure: Oral surgeons, staff, bring smiles to Guatemalan children
Randy’s cries echoed through the pediatric center of the Guatemalan hospital.
The government-funded hospital is mostly outdoors, featuring cracked tiles and an abundance of dust. Randy’s mother carried him up the ramp toward the operating rooms.
The 10-month-old boy from Zacapa, Guatemala, has a cleft lip and palate. He screams and flails as his mother passes him off to a nurse who will ready him for surgery. Minutes later, Randy is lying on a hospital bed inside the operating room with his eyes shut. The sharp and monotonous sound of the heart rate monitor is drowned out by Irish music playing from a portable iHome.
Poised above Randy is oral surgeon Mark Paxton, of Spokane Valley, who will be performing Randy’s surgery. Paxton is a volunteer surgeon who has been doing cleft lip and palate surgeries in Guatemala with Hearts in Motion, a nonprofit based out of Indiana, for the past 20 years.
“I enjoy doing cleft lip and palate surgery because it’s one of the most rewarding types of surgery that I do,” Paxton said. “Fixing cleft lip and palate allows individuals to drink and eat normally, talk normally and look normal. It can make a huge change in someone’s life.” [Read More...]
It's really nice to see all these kind-hearted doctors that go to some of the most impoverished parts of the world to help those who need them the most. You can't help but feel proud that there are people willing to give help to other people in their own special way. In this case, the gift of a smile that can never be replaced.
Posted by: Ryder Mulford | 08/02/2011 at 06:02 AM
What I love about dentists, doctors, and teachers is that they can offer help by rendering services to those in need. Children in Guatemala will surely have a life-changing experience with the services offered by this medical team.
Posted by: Darrin Husak | 01/04/2012 at 09:58 AM