BEYOND BORDERS
International Medical Missions
A Haitian child whose right ear I re-attached after it was ripped off during the earthquake . by LARRY D . FLORMAN , MD , MBA
Many years ago , I was approached by a member of the Board of Directors of Holt International Children ’ s Services , which is based in Oregon and responsible for most of the U . S . adoptions of children orphaned during the Korean war . The organization asked me around 1990 or 1991 to go to Vietnam with a team to treat all children , and specifically orphaned children , who at that time could not legally be adopted internationally . The object was to provide services in Saigon after the war so that the government would permit orphaned Vietnamese children to be allowed to leave the country for adoption .
VIETNAM
In 1991 , I formed a multispecialty group of physicians from Louisville , and we went to Saigon for one week to survey the needs . We were welcomed to Children ’ s Hospital # 1 with the idea of evaluating and treating several children in need . When we arrived , there were 150 children in the hospital lobby mostly in need of surgery
– everything from cleft lip and palate repair to severe burn wound contractures – and some adults as well . We extended our mission and operated on most of them . We promised to return , which we did two times within one year . One of us , Dr . Gordon Tobin , saw the need for treating burn wounds . The Vietnamese children had an unusual number of burn scar contractures requiring flaps and skin grafts . This was due to the fact that the parents would cook soups in large pots close to the ground , and the children would pull a pot of boiling soup on themselves . So , we took our team all over Vietnam educating the medical communities about preventing and treating burn wounds and burn scar contractures .
As we were leaving Vietnam for the last time , the President of Vietnam came to us with gifts , the best of which was to promise us that he had lifted the ban on U . S . adoptions of orphaned children . He also renamed a street in Saigon with my name ( we could never find that street ). There were so many stories to tell . However , the best is still how good we continue to feel about helping the children in an entire nation .
Ultimately , we encouraged our host , a pediatric surgeon , to come to Louisville to learn advanced surgical approaches in treating affected children .
14 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE