ARTICLES

The following article came from the May 2004 Northwest Medical Teams magazine. It highlights 2 young girls from Honduras for which Drs. Israel and Albert had the delight in meeting and caring.

A New Smile For Luz

Luz Marina's dark eyes follow the volunteer doctors around the crowded hospital room. The 10-year-old girl watches intently from her perch next to a crib as the medical team examines the six other boys and girls in the room. In nervous silence Luz watches as they gently change the tiny bandages on a boy's reconstructed lip.

This morning it is Luz's turn to go to the operating room. A million questions race through her head. Will it hurt? Can the doctors fix my lip like these other children? Could I now play with my friends without people making cruel jokes about my face? Will I finally be pretty?

Eating, Talking Are A Challenge

Luz was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. Eating was a constant struggle and with two clefts in her lip and palate, talking was nearly impossible. When Luz's mother heard that a team of volunteer doctors from Northwest Medical Teams was coming to Juticalpa, Honduras, to provide cleft lip and palate surgeries, she determined her daughter would be one of them.

The volunteers agreed. Luz needed extra special attention. Her needs were complex and would require hours of surgery to repair. Together three volunteer doctors worked for six hours to reconstruct Luz's lip, surgically set two protruding front teeth back, and close the huge gaps in her palate. It was mid-afternoon before volunteers returned a still sleepy Luz back to her tearful mother.

"It's the look in a parent's eyes that makes it so rewarding," says Dr. Jeff Israel, a surgeon from Portland, Ore. "In the beginning there are tears of apprehension and fear be-cause they are handing over their child to complete stran-gers and trusting us to help them. Then their tears turn to joy when their child is returned and the surgery is a success."