Burns Missions
Expanding care to patients with severe burns
After years of helping patients suffering from burn injuries on cleft medical missions, Operation Smile has established a Burns Division and is now conducting medical missions exclusively to treat patients affected by burns. These Burn Reconstruction missions have the capacity to address the full scope of burn deformities, and are expanding our ability to touch the lives of patients around the world.
Burns injuries can result from a number of events, but in rural areas, cooking is often performed over open-kerosene burners, which leads to a large number of accidental burns. These patients endure many hardships functionally and psychologically, often giving up all hope for a normal life. Many of these patients have lost functionality as a result of these traumatic injuries, and the burn missions provide the opportunity to address their medical needs.
In collaboration with Harvard and Yale Universities, Operation Smile conducted an inaugural burn mission in Mumbai, India, in January 2010, where medical volunteers from six countries performed 69 procedures for 38 patients, giving them back their hope, mobility and a new life. In 2010, Operation Smile hosted three burn medical missions in Vietnam and India.
See pictures and video from our recent burns mission in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Warning - This video contains graphic images of burns patients.
Burns mission construction
Although similar in construction to a cleft medical mission, the Burns Mission team consists of approximately 30 credentialed medical professionals, most with burn experience, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatric intensivists, nurses, along with physical and occupational therapists. In addition to our medical volunteers, our missions arrange for medical equipment, medication and supplies that meet our Global Standards of Care.
Interested in volunteering on a burns mission?
Our medical volunteers are making a difference in the lives of children with cleft lips and cleft palates every day, and can now help those suffering from burn injuries as well. As part of our medical team, these professionals reach out to each child, generously offering their time, knowledge and skills to heal smiles.
For burns missions, we are looking for plastic surgeons or general surgeons comfortable with reconstruction procedures, nurses with burn wound care experience, and physical and occupational therapists with burn therapy and splinting experience.
If you are interested in joining a burns team, surgeons (includes burns and trauma surgeons), anesthesiologists, and nurses, please follow directions for credentialing through MVAC, our new online volunteer community.
For physical and occupational therapists, please download the application. Please send the completed form along with the required documents to the credentialing department at:
Operation Smile
Medical Volunteer Management
6435 Tidewater Drive
Norfolk, VA 23509-1600
USA
