Hello From Sunny Kisumu

It’s 6:30 Wednesday morning in Kisumu, Kenya and the team has boarded the bus to head off to the Nyanza Province General Hospital, just on the edge of town. We haven’t even started our first case and we have already finished 71 patients for the week. Yesterday was a long day, surprisingly the team is still very motivated and in wonderful spirits. The team is working slow and steady to treat everyone safely, making for some very long days.

The rate of clefts and other deformities in the Nyanza region is pretty high. In fact, there was a baby with a unilateral cleft lip born in the adjacent wing moments after surgery began Monday morning. Every day we have had between 15 and 25 patients of all ages come to be screened for a cleft or other condition (usually a keloid). This is a record turnout for this site. Many of patients are from very poor backgrounds and cannot even afford the minimal charges of the state run hospital. The Operation Smile team has been their only chance to get a physical and often a referral for the cases we do not treat. Most of the higher priorities have been added to the schedule, which has made for two long days.

Today is “palate day” which is a hard schedule filled with palates and palate revisions. Check the stats later in the day to see where we end up. Yet the team is motivated and enthusiastic. Harambee!

- Jay McCord, Operation Smile staff