FEB-C-9
MY REQUEST FOR AN OPERATION
SMILE
DISCUSSED WITH SKIP
WILLIAMS, AND PROPOSED TO
BILL MAGEE FOR THE HORN OF
William Magee, MD
Operation Smile
Dear Bill:
On a recent mission to the
Horn of Africa, I had worked in two venues in
In our screening clinics
for the far greater number of patients who presented for surgical treatment, we
collected the names of those patients who would require more extensive
craniofacial reconstruction work such as bilateral clefts, gnoma,
or traumatic wounds, as well as an extrophy of the bladder,
and some severe burn contractures. For
those that might benefit from a carefully timed reconstruction electively, we
held out the hope for them that we would return in a later mission, possibly in
the form of an Op Smile Mission for this purpose. In order to get advance work prepared for
that, I left a good deal of surgical equipment, including instruments and a lot
of fine suture material as well as expendable supplies, and assembled a team
that might be able to assist in the care and aftercare of such patients as well
as their follow-up.
Dr. Suleiman, Chief of
Surgery, (email addresses above) and Dr. Yassin,
Chief of Staff of Hargeisa Group hospital join me in
extending the invitation to operate in the chief institution of Hargeisa, and assist in the institution-building of the
brand new Hargeisa University Faculty of medicine,
new this year, in which I gave the inaugural visiting professorial lecture.
I then moved to
There I spoke with the
pediatric surgeon-designate, Amezene Tadessa, who will be trained to undertake such
reconstruction later in the growth and development into subspecialities
of their brand new surgical residency that is the fist of their post-graduate
programs that has opened this year.
Their Dean, Dr. Wondinkum, a physiologist, and
the Chairman of Surgery, Dr. Mensur Osman (whose emails are in the "CC" attached) are
very enthusiastic about a continuing relationship in the further development of
their mature but growing expertise now being sub-differentiated. They have authorized me to welcome
participation of an Operation Smile project with an already designated group of
patients awaited and prepared with respect to work-up and pre-op status (e.g.,
blood, antimalarials, family to care for and follow
instructions in their aftercare.)
I spoke briefly with GWU
Provost Skip Williams, and he has encouraged me with the prospect that he might
be interested in joining us as anesthesiologist, along with the school of
anesthetists acting locally in such a mission.
I further moved to the
venue of Addis Ababa, where I saw quite a number of patients with orbital
tumors and gnoma (cancrum oris) awaiting reconstruction in the Mother Teresa Home for
the "Sick, Dying, and Destitute"--a very inspiring place and an ideal
student rotation, in a positive reading of the name of the Home, run by the
Sisters of Charity, who had also encouraged me to return with such a team. Dr. Rick Hodes is
available to help with the team as the internist who has been based in Addis 16
years and is connected with many of the NGO's and clinics, and is a superb
contact for your future work in the Horn of Africa.
Might I ask you to consider
this an official request for an Operation Smile Mission to the Horn of Africa,
on behalf of those officials who have authorized me to carry this request to
you?
On a personal note, I want
to congratulate you and your wife on the receipt of the Medical Missionaries
Hall of Fame Award. I was invited to
participate, but would be in
On a second note, I have
been notified by Landes BioScience
Publishing Company that our long awaited text "Surgery and Healing
in the Developing World" in which you and Skip are contributors as
well as Billy will be sent to me for final editing with the target date for
publishing this spring.
I have attached references
to my most recent mission in the horn of
Yours truly,
Glenn W. Geelhoed MD
>>> Glenn Geelhoed
Here is a report from the
final chapters of the mission to the Horn of Africa, the Ethiopian components
at
A prior series reports the
experiences of the mission to
The photojournalism and
further reports will be available on the Home Page in the "On Line
Journal" at http://home.gwu.edu/~gwg
It has been a very
rewarding experience, and one to be repeated soon.
GWG
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