Tomorrow I will have a day in the OR together with Dr. Tony Giles who does cleft lip and palate surgeries in Africa. Dr. Tony and his wife Ann travel through certain countries in Africa throughout the year not only to screen patients and perform surgeries on them, but also to train surgeons and nurses. They also work together with different organizations that specialize on these types of surgeries.

Cleft lip and palate defects are relatively common in Africa and cause a lot more problems to families and the kids than “just” the cosmetic aspect.  There are regions here in Africa however, where you cannot find a lot of these patients, because they either get killed by their relatives (as the deformation is seen as a curse or the kids even seen as demons) or the kids die early due to malnutrition.

Because babies born with cleft palate struggle to breastfeed, they often need help to gain weight before they can have surgery. That’s where the Mercy Ships Infant Feeding Program comes in. Their job is to help bring our cleft palate babies up to a healthy weight. Then they are able to qualify for the surgery, which I will be helping with doing the anesthesia for example tomorrow.

We did the pre-op rounds earlier this evening and I met my patients for tomorrow, one is 11 months old, the other is 16  months old, both very sweet kids. I will try to get some actual pictures of the patients I have worked on, but due to privacy policies I have to have a consent first and the pictures have to be taken by the communications department. So I hope you are patient with me and can enjoy the pictures of some previous cases. 🙂

One of the aspects I especially love about my work here as an anesthetic assistant in the OR aboard the ‪#‎AfricaMercy‬ is the teamwork aspect – for example working together with the Infant Feeding Program. I am being part of a team that comes together and works together to join the patients from beginning to the end in their journey of healing and recovery. It is amazing to see how far you can go if you go together.

‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ African proverb

I’d love to hear from you, feel free to comment and tell me what you would like to know more about!

Blessings! Silke