Rotary + Plastic Surgeons = ROTAPLAST

Sohag, Egypt

June 6 – 20, 2009

Rotaplast

Saving smiles … changing

lives• Provides surgery to treat children with the

cleft lip and palate anomaly who would otherwise not receive surgical intervention.

• 15 missions/year

• 2009 Egypt mission treated 127 patients

• The cost of sponsoring a full Rotaplast mission ranges from $65,000 to $100,000 depending upon the site.

• Local Rotary Clubs in host country provide local support

• Cost of 2009 mission =

• 2010 District 5000 goal =

To pay for 2009 trip

• Rotary District 5190 paired up with District 5000 to first allow Rotaplast to make their initial visit to Egypt.

– District 5190 encompasses the California Mother Lode, Northeastern California and the vast area of Northern Nevada. The District size is roughly 80,000 square miles and includes a wide diversity of terrain and climates.

• 2009 mission threatened by decline in stock market and District 5000’s matching grant application was returned to Hawaii.

• District 5000 funds the trip without the matching grant.

• Participants from Hawaii were Ayman and his daughter, Amanda, as translators and Lin McIntosh as Assistant Medical Records.

Departure from SFO

• Participants were leaving for the mission from the US (both east and west coasts), Uruguay, Birmingham, England.

• The SFO contingent was limited to 1 bag in order to take a Rotaplast box as baggage.

• There were 37 boxes leaving SFO and fewer members; so the bill for baggage was extensive … $150/box before leaving the airport!

Leaving SFO

• Heather Merriam, EO of Rotaplast, and Warehouse Manager, and Chief Medical Officer negotiating additional baggage fees with British Airways

Look at all the boxes!

A not too good (because I reduced the size for blog) photo of the baggage from the other end of the bags

Arrival in Cairo

Cairo to Sohag

Arrival in Sohag

Getting to hospital – every day

Big BusEarly and Late van

We walked up this hill daily

The hospital

Entrance we used. Rear of bus visible

All potential patients and their families had to come through the former emergency entrance, up 5 steps, to meet Medical Records Director Louise Capozzi

First step, fill out paperwork via interpreter. Second step was to move right to Asst Medical Records Director (Lin)

Clinic Day

Clinic Day

Step #2 – I write patient # on patient’s inside left arm, write patient info on file folder, and send patient to photography.File follows patient throughout

Here’s Ingrid from Germany, the Patient Recreation Therapist trying to maintain some entertainment during a difficult time of day. The people were afraid we would cut off interviews; MD Fish finally had to make personal promise, through an interpreter, that we would not leave until we had seen everyone. And ee didn’t leave until about 10 PM

What we saw

Kissing Mother #2 – “I hated Americans, but you come anyway, fix my son, give him a blanket – I now think Americans are good people.”

Obama Ears

Mom held her son head up so I could get a good photo … then grabbed & kissed, saying thank you, thank you.

Kissing Mother was so intimidating I hesitated to ask if I could take a photo, but her son had such a sparkle in his eye during clinic I had to follow him throughout!

Surgery – before & after

Remember this mother?

Surgery

The beginning of the “sterile” area

Actual scorecard of flies and mosquitoes killed in the 2-table surgical suite!

Surgery

• Evelyn Adad, Head Nurse, is a full time volunteer.

• Each color = surgeon

• Each piece of paper = surgery

• Old style but back up to be sure computer system is right

Surgery

A palate procedure; local surgeon on left; local nurse in black with back to camera

2-table suite; local surgical nurse in red

Recovery Room

• All patients came from surgery to the recovery room until they were awake and comfortable.

• Surprisingly, we heard very little crying, and we were right next door in Medical Records

Command station for 8-room ward & recreation center

Medical Records. Ms. Capozziin front desk; Lin at rear desk. Window to pass files.

Window for document passing to Asst Med Dir

The Conference

• The mission was as much about teaching the University of Sohagmedical school as the surgery

• An all-day conference was held with each of the US specialties making a presentation

Sohag

Lin in spice shop in Sohag souk

Sohag

Sohag taxi cab, complete with curtains!

Lin in front of oldest mosque in Sohag

Luxor/Valley of the Kings

High fashion at Temple of Karnak @ 120 degrees Why walk a lot in the sun .. Every

souvenoir you want is right outside the bus!

Last night/Local Rotary Meeting

Receiving the local club’s flag

This young girl was sitting at adjacent table and, uninvited, brought me the red flower in my hair. I gave her a book about Aloha in return.

No help in 2009

No help in 2009

No help in 2009

Changing how the world views America – one person at a time

• Sohag 2010

– June 27 – July 11

– Fly directly into Luxor eliminating 8 hour bus ride between Cairo and Sohag

– Different hospital, eliminating 1.5 hour bus ride (each way) to and from the hospital

– Better working conditions

– Total needed - $ ____________________