Operation Smile Joins USNS Mercy as Part of Four-Month Southeast Asia Deployment – Pacific Partnership 2008
Operation Smile joined the United States Navy’s hospital ship, USNS Mercy, during its summer 2008 humanitarian civic assistance deployment. Operation Smile worked side-by-side on the USNS Mercy in four countries: Philippines, Vietnam, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea. Nearly 300 children suffering with cleft lips and cleft palates received free reconstructive surgery as a result of these four medical missions.
The USNS Mercy mission, Pacific Partnership 2008, provided humanitarian services to five countries in Southeast Asia. Pacific Partnership 2008 brought together host nation medical personnel, partner nation military medical and construction personnel, and non-governmental organizations to provide medical, dental, construction and other services ashore and afloat.
USNS Mercy departed from San Diego, Calif., on May 1. The first mission involving Operation Smile took place in Cotabato, Philippines, from May 29-June 12. Nearly 50 Operation Smile volunteers, most from the Philippines, provided 100 free physical examinations at Cotabato Regional Hospital to identify surgical patients who were transported aboard the ship for surgery. The Operation Smile medical team worked with Navy medical personnel and provided 54 patients with cleft lip and cleft palate surgery.
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USNS Mercy moved on to Nha Trang, Vietnam, for the next medical mission involving Operation Smile in mid-June. The team of 54 medical volunteers worked in collaboration with the Navy medical team at General Hospital of Khanh Hoa Province and provided free physical examinations to 121 children born with facial deformities.
On June 19, Operation Smile Board of Directors member Cindy McCain joined Operation Smile’s medical mission in Nha Trang. McCain led a tour of the hospital accompanied by Operation Smile Chief Medical Officer Dr. Randy Sherman and Operation Smile Vietnam Medical Director Dr. Lam Hoai Phuong. McCain met patients and families and interacted with Operation Smile volunteers.
“When you see a child anywhere, say a child that doesn’t have food or a child with a cleft palate who’s been kept in a back room because the family is embarrassed or whatever it may be, it takes you back to really what’s basic and what’s really important,” said McCain.
Operation Smile’s medical team, made up primarily of volunteers from Vietnam also included team members from Brazil, England, Laos, Singapore, Spain and the United States. The team worked with Navy personnel to conduct three days of surgery aboard the ship and treated 91 patients. At the conclusion of the Nha Trang mission, Vice Admiral Doug Crowder, U.S. 7th Fleet Commander, said, “It is wonderful to see what great work our forces have done in the field and the smiles on the faces of the mothers who are bringing their children. The dental facilities and the work that Operation Smile and others are doing is just tremendous. I’m awful proud of this entire medical team.”
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Operation Smile then joined the USNS Mercy in Dili, Timor-Leste, in mid-July. This represented Operation Smile’s first medical mission in Timor-Leste. The team of 30 volunteers, hailing from Australia, Brazil, Vietnam, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, and the United States, spent four days aboard USNS Mercy to work in collaboration with the Navy medical team.
The team provided life-changing surgery to 76 Timorese children and adults. Operation Smile Australia played a central role in the planning of this mission. The United Nations, Plan International, Aspen Medical, the Ministry of Health Timor-Leste, and other volunteer members of the community came together to assist Operation Smile in locating and coordinating patients as they made the treacherous journey from remote, mountainous districts of Timor-Leste.
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From August 3-16, Operation Smile joined USNS Mercy in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. This represented Operation Smile’s first medical mission in Papua New Guinea, and we were met again with an extremely positive response from the local community. Operation Smile was able to provide 74 children and adults with free reconstructive surgery.
The volunteer medical team of 36 volunteers was from Australia, China, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The team spent four days aboard the USNS Mercy working side by side with the Navy medical team. The Rotary Club of Port Moresby, Oil Search PNG Limited, Medent, and other volunteer members of the community were instrumental in helping to locate and coordinate the patients. Again, the support of Operation Smile Australia was key to the success of this mission.
