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Community Service -
Rotary Helps Solve Cleft Palate Problems in Peru

Irene Garcia before surgery

One of the unfortunate statistics in Peru is the very high percentage of cleft palate and similar problems that exist because of genetic factors and poor nutrition. Most of the victims of these conditions are, of course, those with very reduced economic resources.

The 150 Rotary clubs in Peru work very hard to resolve these problems. There are plastic and head and neck surgeons, as well as qualified dentists, in many of the larger hospitals but they are hampered by a dearth of funds to perform their operations. So clubs work hard to bring in teams of volunteer surgeons and other necessary medical personnel to perform campaigns in Lima and in the provinces.

One of the largest of these volunteer groups is Rotaplast which started as a club project of the Rotary Club of San Francisco in 1993 but has developed into a sizeable NGO. Rotaplast operates about 20 missions each year to disadvantaged countries in Latin America and Asia including 2 annually in Peru. Each mission has a balance of qualified specialists. The number depends on the operating rooms available and the quantity of patients who have been screened and determined to be operable.

In Lima, for example, Rotaplast held campaigns at Hospital Loyaza in 2001 and 2001, each time bringing a group of 40 people with them. This included 5 plastic surgeons, 5 anesthesiologists, 8 operating room and recovery room nurses, a pediatrician, a dentist, an orthodontist, and 19 Rotary volunteers, each of whom had a particular task(i.e. working with the children and their parents, operating sterilization equipment, translating, serving as quartermaster, doing public relations, etc). Nobody receives any remuneration for their work except room, board, and local transportation and the Rotarians pay their airfare.

Arriving early Thursday morning, each team member prepares the hospital area for his or her particular task, Friday is clinic day with all prospective patients undergoing thorough examinations to assure that no complications from physical problems will occur. Saturday morning at 7:30 AM the first operations start in five operating rooms, complete with surgeon, anesthesiologist, and nurses (together with Peruvian specialists). Each room should produce five successfully operated patients by 6 PM with some patients requiring two or more operations. Monday through Friday the operations continue and Saturday is another clinic to check on each patient's condition. Local medical personnel follow up on each case to assure that there are no complications.

Rotaplast has performed surgery in La Oroya, in Tacna (twice), and plans visits to several provincial cities as well as revisits to previous sites. In 2001, 123 patients were successfully operated on (one was transported to Philadelphia, at the expense of the Rotarians) where mother and daughter were lodged in a Rotarian home while the child received 7 operations for damage done by a boar when the child was an infant). In 2001, 143 patients were operated on.

Rotaplast is able to perform these surgical feats by the support of contributors, mostly Rotarian. -- Martin Singer

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