Jaylinn is one of 49 children whose life was changed by LWB’s Cleft Exchange trip held in Kaifeng last year. This beautiful young girl is one of those babies who drew the medical staff and volunteers to her with her social and interactive personality. The volunteers would rush to her bed each morning upon arrival at the hospital, hoping to get to take care of her that day. Read more.
While we wish we could post the photo of every child we helped in 2012, we hope you will enjoy this much shorter snapshot of some of the joys of this last year!
In January, we celebrated our Unity Fund, which works to heal poor, rural children so that families can stay together. HeQing’s father had no financial means to heal his precious daughter’s heart, and we are so grateful to our donors who gave her this second chance at a healthy life. As you can see, her smile absolutely lit up the hospital ward! Read more.
Last month 49 children received cleft lip or palate surgeries during LWB’s Cleft Medical Exchange in Kaifeng. One of those precious children was a very special little girl named Emily. Eighteen months ago Emily was born, missing both legs and one arm. When Amy Eldridge, LWB’s executive director, and Sheri Russon, LWB’s administration director, visited China in March, they met sweet Emily at her orphanage in Guangdong Province. They knew that this little one would need a little extra help finding her forever family and set the wheels in motion for her to be able to receive surgery during the cleft trip. Read more.
Cleft trips are always emotionally and physically exhausting. The months of preparation, the long plane rides, the huge, overweight suitcases that are wrestled through the airports and begged through check-in without overweight fees, the physical aliments in a foreign country, and the long, hard hours in an unfamiliar hospital all become insignificant compared to the moment that the first child comes back from the operating room. Read more.
Friday was a wonderful and exhausting day in Kaifeng as the LWB 2012 cleft trip entered its final day.
Baby Theo waiting for his turn
Ten surgeries were completed today, which brought the total number of children healed to 49. One baby had to be disqualified from surgery this morning due to infection, but we all agree that 49 lives changed is a wonderful accomplishment in just five days of surgery. Both the US medical team and the China medical team feel that the trip was a complete success, and they are already talking about when they can get together again in the future to help more children in need. Read more.
All of us at LWB sure are happy that Dr. John Ness came into this world a few decades ago. Before we tell you about the surgery day, we just want to thank this very special man, who has traveled with LWB on cleft trips multiple times to change the lives of so many children. We had an extra special surprise for him today, when we asked him to sit back on one of the hospital beds so the very grateful nannies could make a “baby pile” on his lap in honor of all he has done. Following the photo, the nannies all sang a very special happy birthday song in Chinese to him. Later that night he was presented with a dragon cake, and we hope this was a birthday he will never forget. Read more.
Tuesday was simply an incredible day for our cleft exchange in Kaifeng, with eleven children having their surgeries completed. The first cases started at 8 a.m. with Harris and Isaac heading to the OR. The ward was actually pretty quiet today, as the babies rested following their operations yesterday and the others napped before surgery. Little Asher has had some swelling following his operation, so his nanny from the Anhui Healing Home was sitting with him making sure his mouth stayed open so his airway was good.
Asher
It took quite awhile for me to fall asleep on Sunday night, as I was thinking about what a huge responsibility our team feels for the children who have come to Kaifeng this week for their cleft repairs. Before I traveled, I of course knew that we would be putting babies to sleep in the OR for their surgeries, but it wasn’t until yesterday, when I met these incredible kids in person, that the full weight of wanting everything to go smoothly became the heaviest. I am so grateful to all of the donors and supporters for LWB who are making these surgeries possible. The nannies and foster moms have such obvious hopes for their children to be healed. You are making such a difference in their lives. Read more.
The cleft exchange medical team has arrived safely to Kaifeng in anticipation of the surgeries beginning early Monday morning. In addition, 26 babies arrived on Sunday from orphanages throughout China, and our team helped them get settled into the hospital. We wonder if you can identify the province this group was from by their baby carriers?
We have four wonderful physicians on this trip from Minnesota – Dr. John Ness, Dr. Chris Tolan, Dr. Neil Derechin, and Dr. Kathy Clinch. They spent Sunday doing pre-op physicals on the children and making sure each child was in good health for their life changing operations. Read more.
It’s Wednesday morning and in five days, the 2012 Cleft Medical Exchange will commence surgeries for almost 50 children at Kaifeng Children’s Hospital in Henan Province. While I’m excited, my more overwhelming emotion is nervousness. I have been involved with Love Without Boundaries for eight years, but this is the first time I’m traveling on a medical trip. Performing 50 surgeries in a week is a daunting task in a familiar environment, but one can imagine the logistical issues of doing this from 5,000 miles away, in a state of the art, yet unfamiliar hospital, with many of the children arriving from hundreds of miles away. But therein lies the heart of why I adore LWB, and why I am honored to be associated with this wonderful organization.
Read more.
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