Day 4 in Hanoi, Vietnam
Hanoi, Nov. 11
It was the second day of surgery, and the target for today’s fresh team of surgeons was 62 operations, up from 48 the day before. And the miracle was that they made it successfully through all of them.
The morning was tense, as scores of parents and kids crowded into the corridor. Nurses reached for the megaphone to establish some order, and soon it was all running to plan. By the afternoon the wards were again filled with sleeping children sporting strips of white tape across their upper lips.
Operation Smile volunteers delivered more toys to the resting children, who wasted no time in testing how tightly attached the dolls’ arms and legs were, or how good they tasted.
One highlight today was a very rare case - a 48-year old man of the Hmong minority people, who spent the day going back and forth to the mirror, amazed by the change to his face.
Tomorrow the miracles continue.
- Peter Stuckings, Operation Smile volunteer photographer