131 patients get free surgery from Operation Smile-Cebu

CEBU, Philippines —  At least 131 patients with cleft lip and palate benefited from the five-day Operation Smile-Cebu Mission which ended yesterday.

The mission, which offered free surgical operation to repair facial deformities, was sponsored by the Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung Foundation.

"Our support for Operation Smile stays as long as there are children with such deformities are around. We will continue to help," says Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung, who has partnered with the Operation Smile since 1997.

"But seeing the need of more help for our children with cleft lip or cleft palate, my children, who were already exposed to this charitable work, are very much willing to continue the mission," she added.

Dr. Angel Mojica, executive director of OP-Philippines, said that of the 131 patients operated for free, the youngest was six months while the oldest was 49 years old.

A total of 66 volunteers comprising of surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatric intensivists, pediatricians, dentists, and clinical coordinators from Canada, Mexico, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela and Philippines helped each other to complete this year’s mission.

For the past 22 years, there were already over 6,000 patients who benefitted from the free operation. Dr. William Magee, Jr., co-founder and executive officer of OP, said that the mission has helped over 300,000 children worldwide.

Dr. Vivina Tiu, chief medical director of Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung Charitable Foundation Inc., said the free operation they offered would cost around P135,000 in private hospitals.

According to OP, every three minutes, a child is born somewhere in the world with a cleft lip or cleft palate while one in every 500 births in the Philippines.

Operation Smile is an international medical charity that has provided hundreds of thousands of free surgeries for children and young adults in developing countries who are born with such deformities.

Operation Smile was founded by Dr. Magee, a plastic surgeon and his wife, Kathleen, a nurse and a clinical social worker. It has extended help to unfortunate children in more than 60 countries through its network of credentialed surgeons, pediatricians, doctors, nurses and student volunteers.

It is one of the oldest and largest volunteer-based organizations dedicated to improving the health and lives of children worldwide through access to surgical care. — FPL (FREEMAN)