Creating New Smiles and Lives in India
"Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do humble work."
~Mother Teresa
WMP Donates Colposcope for Early Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer in Ndola, Zambia.
In September of 2005, a 17-member World Missions Possible team traveled to Shimla, India in northern India to provide free reconstructive surgery to children with facial deformities and burn scar contractures. The team was led by Tom Flood, R.N., and consisted of surgeons (specializing in plastic and burn reconstruction), anesthesiologists, nurses, a pediatrician, a dentist, a translator and a teacher from all across the United States. The team worked together, and along with staff, patients and families, performed 92 operations - consisting of 60 lip/cleft palates and 32 burn reconstructions.
The team donated five blood pressure machines, one pulse oximeter and one suction unit. Texas Children’s Hospital donated gowns & toys. A special thanks to Ethicon, Stryker Libinger, Methodist Hospital, Welch Allen, Zimmer, Conmed Linvatec and Tyco Valley Lab for loaner equipment and donations that made this trip possible.
According to the team, Shimla Hospital's Dr. G.R. Bazliel and his staff made the WMP team feel welcome and presented each of the team members with a Simla Sanitarium and Hospital logo jacket. A very special thanks to Sanjay Bhagra - whose assistance to Tom Flood and the team proved invaluable.
WMP team members and the House of Charity, a Houston-based nonprofit organization, selected three children to return to the Houston area to undergo extensive burn reconstruction at the Shriners Burn Hospital in Galveston, Texas. They are staying at the Healing House in Houston and are adapting readily. Some of the WMP team members are visiting and staying in touch -- looking forward to the transformation the operations will provide.
According to the WMP team, the best and most rewarding part of the trip was seeing the smiles on the faces of the children who recived the life-changing surgeries and their happy families. One child drew a picture and wrote a note that one team member posted in their hospital^s post-op ward. The note read: “Dear Doctor, you are like a God for us. We all the children’s pray to God for you and your family members for a happy life” - Simran
The WMP team has been invited to return in 2006 and plans are already underway to organize another team to travel to India. Assistance and donations in the form of equipment donations, funds and volunteers are always welcome. If you're a currently licensed member of a surgical staff in the U.S. and interested in learning how you can become involved, please see our "Upcoming Projects" page on this site.
