July 2010
Dear Friends,
Our servant-hearted team returned on April 18 from our surgical teams' collective twenty-first trip to Vietnam. We screened about 50 patients at the Odontomaxillofacial Hospital (OMFH) and National Hospital of Odontostomatology (NHOS.) Our team and the Vietnamese associates, including Dr. Le Thi Viet, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department Director (OMFH,) and Dr. Lam Hoai Phuong, Hospital Director (NHOS,) performed 30 free facial surgeries on April 12-16.
The 26 cases at the OMFH on April 1213 included:
- 23 pediatric cleft lip and/or palate closures
- 1 adult cleft lip closure,
- 1 release of an ankylosis ("frozen" temporomandibular [TMJ] jaw joint,)
- 1 pediatric chin tumor removal.
On April 14-15 the team did four surgeries at the NHOS, including:
- a tennis ball-sized tumor removal from a ten-year-old boy's cheek
- mandibular reconstruction
- placement of a rib graft and titanium bone plate on half of a mandible (lower jaw) after a tumor was removed
- post-trauma reconstruction of the frontal bone, zygomatic arch (at the eye,) and ethmoid sinus (nasal area.)
7-month-old Le Mai is fed by her father while her mother holds her after her unilateral cleft lip repair. 10-year-old Hieu from near Can Tho (southern tip of Vietnam) with large right cheek tumor present for two years. 10-year-old Hieu three days after his tennis ball-sized tumor was removed. Orphanage worker lovingly holds sleeping orphaned infant in 100+F heat outside operating room while waiting for his cleft lip repair.
On April 16 Dr. Randy Robinson presented at the 5th Face the Challenge Facial Surgery Seminar given in Vietnam.
The topics selected by the Vietnamese related to: 1) bone lengthening techniques, 2) nasal surgeries, 3) tumor diagnosis, removal, and reconstruction, and 4) pediatric trauma. At least 50 surgeons, anesthesia specialists, and nurses attended.
Face The Challenge Website
Our website provides Where We Go: Vietnam Slide Shows, Real Stories, and news of recent awards for further review. We are grateful for the successful surgeries despite their complexity. And we were touched by the love demonstrated and the tears shed by the parents, siblings, and others as they waited quietly. (See two photos: young family in recovery room feeding their daughter and orphanage worker in blue holding infant.)
The Real Stories are of a 44-year-old farmer, Suc, or "cleft," in Vietnamese, who had his unrepaired cleft lip closed. Another story is about a man whose TMJ was fused by a tumor for three years. And another is about the 10 year old boy, Hieu, with the large cheek tumor. Removal involved a complex effort to remove the tumor, place a hip bone graft in the void, and put in sutures from his mouth to underneath his eye. A separate closure also ran across his scalp. (Hieu's before and third day post-op photos are above.)
Recent Emails
". . . I am waiting with all despair."
— Khai, June 15
These words came from a young teacher with an advanced facial tumor. He was told he needed to wait for the Face the Challenge team to return. Pray for wisdom — if we can help.
"After your first case of condylectomy and costochondral graft [removal of the condyle near the 'jaw joint' and placement of a rib graft] for the patient in your last travel, we met three other condylar osteochondromas [mixed bonycartilaginous tumors.] We have performed the same surgical technique as you taught us with good results . . . .Please know that your recommendation for the treatment of these difficult cases is very important and useful for us and the patients."
— Dr. Bui Huu Lam, NHOS Lead Surgeon, July 3
We are glad to know the surgeons are beginning to do these more complex surgeries with such success. We pray they will continue to have greater independence, skill, and confidence and patients will be treated sooner.
". . . In Vietnam summertime is the busiest time in the year. I just came from Nghe An , a province in Central Vietnam almost 1000 km from Ho Chi Minh City. We set up a team to help cleft children. And now at the hospital in HCMC we have a lot of trauma patients and many cleft children . . . .We are thinking of you often and hope to see you again soon."
— Dr. Le Thi Viet, July 14
Last April we were pleased to donate from FTC donor funds and corporate gifts-in-kind more suture, surgical supplies, instruments, cheek /chin implants, and hand-held oxygen monitors for Drs. Phuong and Viet to be used at both HCMC hospitals and in the province hospitals.
What's Next?
We were invited to attend the ceremony for when the new National Hospital opens in late October. We await more news. We plan to bring more donated supplies and updated surgical text books, plus consult with patients with tumors or trauma who have the most pressing needs. We next hope to bring our 22nd FTC-Vietnam surgical team in April 2011.
Since 1993 our teams have traveled abroad 29 times — Bolivia: 4 times, Ukraine, Moldova, and Siberia: once, China: 3 times, and Vietnam: 21 times. The total number of free surgeries is ~1,082. These surgeries remain possible through the donations, prayers, and encouragement of our many faithful supporters.
We give God the glory for this tremendous privilege to offer His love to those in need of bodily healing and mended spirits. And we say "thank you" to each of you, too! "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." - Romans 12:12
In Him, Our Health and Hope,
Randy and Ginger Robinson
Randolph C. Robinson, MD, DDS & Ginger H. Robinson, BSN, RN, with our Boards and Teams
Face the Challenge remains an all-volunteer humanitarian non-profit organization. There are no paid employees. Donations go directly toward surgical efforts. Financial gifts may be given by check or through PayPal @ www.facethechallenge.org
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