Our 2019 LWB cleft team would like to send one final hello from beautiful Lanzhou, China. The gorgeous Gansu countryside We welcomed a very special guest to the cleft trip last night, a kind and caring woman named Ms. Xu. She was the wonderful orphanage director who made it possible back in 2006 for Gong […]
Today was the last full day of surgeries for our team in Lanzhou, and the hospital ward was brimming with children all recovering from their cleft operations this week. Handsome Peyton It was time to say goodbye to some of the wonderful kids who had their surgeries at the start of the trip, such as […]
Day Four is a wrap, and after being taught by the Chinese hospital team how to make homemade dumplings tonight, we can update everyone with very full and happy tummies. We’ll just say we’re not going to quit our day jobs because this isn’t exactly how a traditional Chinese dumpling is supposed to look, but […]
Happy Day Three everyone! Our team had another wonderful day in Lanzhou, with 9 children receiving surgery. First up, of course, was morning rounds, to make sure every child who had surgery the day before was doing well post-op. Two-second summary – they are! Kamryn’s lip repair looks absolutely beautiful, as you can see below. […]
Welcome to Day Two of the 2019 LWB Cleft Surgery Exchange – also known as “Let the surgeries begin!” Sixteen children were on the schedule for today, so our team wasted no time doing final checks on their patients before getting underway. First up for Dr. Buckmiller’s room was 8-month-old Finley, a gorgeous little boy […]
Welcome to LWB’s Cleft Trip 2019! We’re so happy to have you following along. This year’s exchange is based in western China, in Gansu’s capital city of Lanzhou. We are honored to once again be working alongside the doctors at Gansu Provincial Hospital and can’t wait to share news and photos from this life-changing week. […]
This year’s Cleft Medical Exchange in Lanzhou, Gansu, China is a blending of previous and new team members. We are so thankful to have both those who are returning and those who are joining us for the first time as they each bring their unique skills, experiences, and passion for helping children to this exchange. Some of you might remember that Dr. Lisa Buckmiller adopted a little girl named Gong Lu from China whom LWB helped bring to the US for medical care in 2006. (The remarkable story of Gong Lu is told in the LWB book, The Heart of an Orphan.)
During last year’s Cleft Medical Exchange, we met a baby girl born with cleft lip and palate named Faye. When Faye’s family brought her to the hospital in Gansu, she was just eight months old and one of three daughters in a farming family. To make additional money to support his little girls, Faye’s father made noodles in Beijing, so he rarely returned home to Gansu. However, Faye’s dad wasn’t about to let his baby girl have surgery without him, so he traveled 1,500 km to be with her.
When our team was identifying children for our November 2018 Cleft Medical Exchange, we learned about a little boy named Sebastian. Sebastian is seven years old and lives with his grandparents and sister in a remote part of Gansu province. His parents are migrant workers far from home.
