History of Operation Smile in Haiti
March 2008
In collaboration with Partners In Health, Operation Smile holds its first medical mission in Hinche where 65 patients received free surgery. Two patients with severe craniofacial deformities, whose cases were too complicated to treat in Haiti, were flown to Children’s Hospital of Boston to receive free neurological and plastic surgery.
Education
Operation Smile conducts a Basic Life Support (BLS) training course and cleft repair care training for 30 Haitian nurses. Operation Smile also conducts a medical education conference. Operation Smile Senior Manager of Education Dr. Luis Bermudez lectured on the surgical repair of cleft lips and cleft palates. Operation Smile medical volunteers, Dr. Selwyn Rogers and Jeri Hinds, R.N., gave presentations on burn injury and care.
December 2008
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| Yveline after her cleft lip surgery at the Hospital St. Therese. Operation Smile's mission to Haiti was collaborated with Partners in Health. |
Operation Smile returns to the Hôpital Sainte Therèse in Hinche and continues its collaboration with Partners in Health (Zanmi Lasante) to provide 59 patients with free reconstructive surgery.
More patients with severe craniofacial deformities were identified, and arrangements were made to provide them free neurological and plastic surgery at Children’s Hospital of Boston. In addition, approximately seven children with heart murmurs were provided follow-up care by a Partners in Health cardiologist.
Education
During this medical mission, Operation Smile conducted a pre-pharmacology course for nurses in preparation for a Pediatric Advanced Life Support Course. In addition, the team organized an educational evening and provided lectures on: Labor-Delivery/C-Section Analgesia and Anesthesia, the Surgical Repair of Imperforate Anus, Common Pediatric Surgical Problems, Difficult Pediatric Airways and the Management of Laringospasm, and Neonatal Resuscitation and Infant Physiology.
April 2009
Operation Smile and Partners In Health provide 50 free surgeries at the Hôpital de la Paix in Port au Prince. In addition to providing free examinations, the team dentist created a free dental clinic and extracted 65 additional teeth for members in the community with significant tooth decay. Two surgical patients had high blood pressure, so they were provided free medication, and referred to a free health clinic for follow-up.
Prior to the medical mission, Operation Smile ran a Pediatric Advanced Life Support course (PALS) in Cange, where 23 nurses participated and were certified.
January 2010
Beginning January 25, Operation Smile deploys 11 teams of medical volunteers over the span of three months across three sites in Haiti to provide life-saving and limb-saving care and surgeries for earthquake victims. In total, over 25 tons of critical medical supplies were shipped. More than 130 of Operation Smile’s highly trained medical volunteers worked to provide orthopedic surgery and care in Fond Parisien, Hinche, and the Navy's hospital ship, the USNS Comfort.
June 2010
Operation Smile provides life support training to Haitian doctors and nurses in Cange and Hinche and awarded 125 certifications.
September 2010
Operation Smile medical volunteer Scott Dailey holds feeding training for 40 parents and their infants at St. Damiens Hospital in Port au Prince and Zamni Lasante Hospital in Cange, Haiti. The course provided training for parents on low cost feeding interventions as well as demonstrations on helpful feeding techniques to prevent malnutrition and help babies with cleft lip and cleft palate gain enough weight to undergo cleft surgery safely.
January 2011
Operation Smile collaborates with Partners In Health in the building of a new state-of-the-art teaching hospital in Mireballais that will be the center of care in the region. Operation Smile is consulting with Partners In Health in the design and outfitting of the operation rooms and will be actively involved in training and education programs in this new facility.
Operation Smile also donated essential equipment to completely outfit two operating rooms in a new surgical facility at St. Damien Children’s Hospital in Port au Prince. This new facility will be staffed by teams of international volunteers and will provide surgical care to patients currently unable to receive proper treatment.
