Foreign doctors here for Operation Smile

CEBU, Philippines - More than 20 foreign doctors from different countries yesterday arrived in Cebu for the weeklong Operation Smile-Cebu Mission that would start on Sunday

The visitors were greeted at the Mactan Cebu International airport by Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung, chairman and founder of MSY Charitable Foundation Inc

The MSY Charitable Foundation hosted the Operation Smile-Cebu Mission since 1998. The mission is now on its 13th year.

At least 250 children with cleft lip and cleft palate deformities and other facial deformities will avail themselves of the free operation.

Mission coordinator Monet Aliño said all patients for the mission should proceed to Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center starting today and tomorrow for the screening.

The surgery is scheduled from March 21 to 25, 2010 at VSMMC.

Operation Smile, in partnership with the MSY Foundation, has so far operated almost 3,000 patients in Cebu for the past 12 years.

The visiting doctors are composed of plastic surgeons and anesthesiologists who will work hand in hand with their local counterparts from across the country.

Over a hundred medical students have already signified their intention to volunteer for the event.

“Daghan gyud kaayo ang ni-volunteer but some we have to turn them down kay maghuot na unya ta sa hospital,” Aliño said.

Salimbangon-Yeung had said her foundation adopted Operation Smile International Medical Mission as a major project because in “our country, statistics are saddening wherein for every 500 babies born one will inevitably be cleft.”

At the hospital, the procedure would cost from P50,000 to P60,000 per surgery. But with MSY Foundation and Operation Smile, it is totally free.

The foundation is expected to shell out between P1.5 million to P2 million as expenses for the event. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/LPM      (FREEMAN NEWS)