Happy New Year!
Wishing you peace and joy in the Chinese New Year.
Dr. Yan Zhuang with Dr. Phil LaRussa
Children of China Pediatrics Foundation and Dr. Phil LaRussa, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Columbia University Medical Center Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, are excited to partner on a new medical training program to be launched at Tangdu Hospital’s Infectious Disease department under the supervision of Dr. Yongtao Sun, in Xi’an, China.
Setting in motion the new relationship, Dr. Yan Zhuang arrived in New York in the fall of 2011 to complete five weeks of training and work side by side with Dr. LaRussa and his staff.
Dr. Zhuang with analyst Aaron Garretson
One of the key goals of the program, which focused on HIV resistance training, was to pass on knowledge of sequence analysis software, sample kits, and the process by which samples are collected in order to detect, monitor, and treat infectious diseases including HIV.
“[Dr. Zhuang] is a quick learner,” said Dr. LaRussa. “We gave him some of our hardest challenges and he was able to analyze them quite well.”
According to the 2010 UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS 2010 Country Progress Report for China, there were an estimated 740,000 people living with HIV in China by the end of 2009 (compared to 500,000 living with HIV in the USA), with the rate of infection among at-risk groups including women, children, and young people increasing.
The next stage of development will take place in 2012, when Dr. LaRussa visits Xi’an to train local staff on how to obtain samples and examine infants and children, and lecture on cutting-edge HIV treatment plans for children and adolescents.
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Funding for this new clinic was made possible thanks to the support of donors like you. To support CCPF’s ongoing efforts to improve the lives of children in China, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution today. DONATE NOW
Children of China Pediatrics Foundation is proud to announce the launch of the new Spagnoletti Rehabilitation Program, established in honor and memory of Maurice Spagnoletti to provide crucial training and support to orphanage medical staff members, caregivers and foster parents in China caring for children with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and a host of other neuromuscular disorders.
This vital new program will serve children living with disorders that cause pain and debilitation, who would not otherwise have access to life-changing care. Continuing to build on the successful international and intercultural professional ties created between CCPF and the Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Hospital forged over the 2011 medical mission in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, this past year, The Spagnoletti Rehabilitation Program will partner its efforts with the Chengdu Hospital’s rehabilitation program.
CCPF President and Founder, Gena Palumbo, along with a group of medical experts, will return to China this coming March to meet with their international partners at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and begin identifying the most pressing needs and concerns of the children.
This much-needed program was made possible thanks to the generous outpouring of donations from the family and friends of Maurice Spagnoletti, of New Jersey, who passed away last June. CCPF offers its condolences to the Spagnoletti family and is honored to continue its life-changing work with the Spagnoletti Rehabilitation Program in his memory.
“I’m thankful to the Spagnoletti family for remembering the children of China during their time of loss,” said CCPF President Gena Palumbo. “I feel fortunate to be part of such a dedicated group of people who share a deep concern and commitment to helping orphaned children in China.”
A Letter from President Gena Palumbo
CCPF President and Founder Gena Palumbo
We are so delighted to have met the colleagues we now call friends in Chengdu. Our team immediately meshed with their team and we were able to help change the lives of many children, some of whom traveled 24 hours by train to have surgeries. I’d like to thank our team, our sponsors, and the generosity of our donors to make this a reality.
I thank Michelle Tong for chairing such a successful Evening of Celebration this year, allowing us to raise enough funds to pay for a medical mission and to David O’Brien for sharing his story and introducing his friend and colleague Dr. Kuhn to CCPF.
I would also like to thank Dr. Phil LaRussa for his energy and commitment to getting the infectious disease center launched. And to the Spagnoletti family for remembering the children of China during their time of loss. I feel fortunate to be part of such a dedicated group of people who share a deep concern and commitment to helping orphaned children in China. There are over 600 children whose lives are better because of their talent and humanity.
We know there are thousands of children who need our help. There isn’t a better time than now to reach out and help transform a life.
Thank you,
Gena Palumbo
President and Founder Children of China Pediatrics Foundation
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YOUR DONATION CAN CHANGE A LIFE.
To support CCPF with a year-end donation CLICK HERE.
Or contact us at 212-248-7561, info@chinapediatrics.org.
2011 Evening of Celebration a Success
Pictured: Board Member Michelle Tong and President and Founder Gena Palumbo on either side of the evening's performers.
Thank you for your generous support and participation in the CCPF 2011 Evening of Celebration. The event was a wonderful opportunity to honor Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn for the work he is doing to improve and enhance relations with China, and David O’Brien for his commitment to improving and enhancing the lives of special needs children in China.
The 2011 Evening of Celebration netted CCPF $85,000 — enough to cover the costsfor our next mission, and help at least fifty more children receive life-changing surgeries. Thank you for your help in making this a success. Please visit our events page for more photos of the event. — Gena Palumbo
For more about this event, please visit CCPF’s 2011 Evening of Celebration page HERE.
View the 2011 Evening of Celebration Gala slideshow HERE.
Chengdu Volunteer Voices
DR. DAVID ROYE
Dr. David Roye, CCPF's Chief Medical Officer
Over the last 12 years every time I have entered a new hospital with the CCPF Medical Team I am eager to begin meeting the orphans we will treat, meeting new Chinese colleagues and sharing medical knowledge. Our visit to Chengdu was that and more. The faculty and staff at Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Hospital was well prepared for the visit and shared our enthusiasm and made us feel welcome immediately. Our group of medical professionals and other volunteers quickly bonded to became an effective and collegial team. Forming a successful, empathetic Chinese American team quickly followed. Can you imagine an American hospital allowing a group of foreign nurses, doctors and others to usurp a few operating rooms for a week or so and perform surgery? Not only did the senior administration of the hospital allow us to do this, they helped and guided every step of the way as we unpacked and organized the mission. The Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Hospital was well equipped and included amenities that the staff of our hospitals at home would envy including large new operating rooms. Our experience was different than those we experienced in some secondary hospitals where we had to provide most of the organization and motivation for the mission; here they were equal partners. As Medical Director, I want to ensure that our visits are useful and meaningful for all of us. Our paramount goal is to improve the care of Chinese orphans and to educate the medical, surgical and nursing teams of our host hospitals with the latest treatment options and the basics they may have missed. The leadership of Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Hospital helped us organize our educational efforts in a way we had not previously experienced. They obviously valued the experience and knowledge of our volunteers. There was a sophistication and appreciation of the knowledge exchange that the team has rarely experienced in the past. The educational offerings were very well attended by the staff of the hospital and surrounding institutions. In addition to technical education offerings, we were able to promote our message of volunteerism and the value of every child – even if they do not have parents or the means to get medical care.
I am a blessed man; I love what I do. I love performing the surgeries, taking care of the children, teaching and working with the incredible CCPF team. Working at Chengdu Woman’s and Children’s hospital was a wonderful experience and I look forward to our return.
A native of Oklahoma, Dr. David P. Roye, Jr., M.D., has worked for the past 31 years at Columbia University and the NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. He currently serves as Director of the Division of Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery, St. Giles Foundation Professor of Clinical Pediatric Orthopaedic Surgery, Executive Medical Director of the Columbia Cerebral Palsy Center, and remains President of his medical school class at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. For the past 13 years he has served as CCPF’s Chief Medical Officer. His interest and experience in the delivery of healthcare to children in China has led him to accept responsibility for leading the efforts of establishing a cooperative relationship between the NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and the Beijing Children’s Hospital (BCH).
DR. ABBY ALLEN
After finally recovering from the inevitable jet lag, I am able to reflect on our recent mission trip to Chengdu, Sichuan. This was my first mission trip affiliated with CCPF, but not my first trip to China. As I studied Chinese as an undergraduate and have traveled to China a couple times in the past, I was elated to have this opportunity to join two of my greatest passions: pediatric orthopaedics and the Chinese language (and yes, I realize how nerdy this makes me sound).
Despite this seemingly ideal combination of skills, I was immediately humbled upon my arrival to China. I found out quickly that my Chinese language skills were rusty. And it wasn’t simply the language I had trouble translating – I found that practicing medicine as I know it in the United States also does not translate to China as easily as I would have expected.
Abby, Darwin Chen and Liu QiEr.
I knew almost no one on this mission trip prior to departing for China, but within hours of arrival, each individual CCPF volunteer, no matter what his or her role, seamlessly formed into a well-functioning team. It was truly amazing. Whatever boundaries there were – whether they be language or lack of the fancy equipment we are used to here in the States – we overcame them.
It was very satisfying to give someone medical care that they otherwise may not have received. Plus, a lot of these children have a deformity that carries a social stigma with them, which in these orphans’ cases, may make it difficult for them to get adopted. This little girl, Liu QiEr, is the perfect example of this. Liu QiEr was born with two thumbs. My colleague, Dr. Darwin Chen, and I peformed the Bilhaut-Cloquet procedure on her, which turns her two thumbs into one. This small change in her thumbs could be a grand one in her life.
I am forever grateful for all of the volunteers and children, as well as the Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Hospital physicians and staff, whom I met through CCPF. I hope we cross paths again!
Abby Allen is the Director of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Clinic at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Ron, and her dog, Kono. This is her first CCPF mission.
DR. MARILOU CALOUSTIAN
Marilou and Fu Jia.
I was recruited by one of my colleagues, Dr. Sam Rhee. I decided to join the mission as a Pediatric Anesthesiologist because I felt the objective of CCPF to help underprivileged orphans with special needs was profoundly touching to me. I went to Chengdu and met these amazing, gracious children who were so happy and appreciative of everything we did for them, and I was humbled beyond words. I can well understand CCPF working so tirelessly to advocate for these children’s wellbeing and improvements in the quality of their lives. I was also impressed by the people volunteering for CCPF-they are wonderful, capable people doing excellent work. I was thrilled to be a part of the group and look forward to future missions. I can’t wait to see the kids next year and see how they’re doing after the surgeries they underwent.
Marilou Caloustian is a Pediatric Anesthesiologist who lives in New York and works at the Hackensack University Medical Center. Her 11-year-old niece Camille thought she was cool to be going on a mission to China.
DR. DARWIN CHEN
Darwin (l.) and fellow volunteer Rene Sison.
Our recent trip to Chengdu was my first medical mission. I had the privilege of working with pediatric orthopaedic surgeons David Roye and Abigail Allen, along with an incredibly dedicated and talented team of anesthesiologists, surgeons, pediatricians, nurses, and support staff. We treated Chinese orphans with a wide variety of complex orthopaedic conditions including developmental hip dysplasia, posttraumatic deformities, and congenital hand anomalies.
The kids in China are some of the most amazing patients I have ever encountered. They beam with joy and are filled with life. Despite all of their hardships, they remain a tremendously resilient, hopeful, and determined bunch. I am thankful to CCPF for giving me an opportunity to care for them.
Darwin Chen is an orthopaedic surgeon. He recently finished his residency at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, and is headed to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago for a fellowship in adult reconstruction this year.
CARMELA GRANDE, RN
Carmela (far right), with fellow volunteers Flora Wang, Maria Anna Judilla, Louise Strickland and Rene Sison.
Wow what a great team we had in Chengdu! The reception we received from the nursing and hospital staff was so impressive. The 28 children that we operated on were so special to all of us. Mission accomplished, with more to come!
Carmela Grande is a retired Operating Room Nurse. She has participated in every CCPF mission to China, except for the first trip. Carmela loves China, especially the children and people who have become friends of all the CCPF volunteers.
DR. DEAN LAOCHAMROONVORAPONGSE
Dean.
In late March, Dr. Fran Yudkowitz paged me while I was in the cardiac ORs and asked me, “Dean, do you want to go to China?” I said “yes” without hesitation or asking for further details. Being a member of the anesthesia team during the CCPF Chengdu mission was an enlightening experience for me. It was extremely gratifying to see the team work together and provide the best possible care for these young orphans both in the OR and recovery room. On a personal level, it further strengthened my commitment to pursue a career in pediatric anesthesia and allowed me to make friends with the Chinese anesthesiologists by using all the Mandarin I learned in college but thought I had forgotten!
Dean Laochamroonvorapongse is Chief Resident in the Department of Anesthesiology at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.He will soon be moving to Portland to pursue a fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesia at Oregon Health and Science University. This is his first medical mission.
LOUISE STRICKLAND, RN
Louise and Long Xiaotian.
I was invited to join CCPF on their mission to Chengdu by Carmela Grande, a veteran of CCPF missions. When I heard what the goals and mission of CCPF are, I was keen to participate. The group impressed me with how well they work together to help these children in need. The children are so inspirational, appearing to take the most challenging things in stride. I feel like I learned so much from them.
Being asked by Carmela to be a part of the team was moving, and I am grateful. Playing a tiny part in something so worthwhile is a wonderful thing.
Louise Strickland is a registered nurse. She lives in New York City with her husband Britt. She works as an operating room nurse in Manhattan. Chengdu was her first mission with CCPF.
LIYING SHEN
Liying Shen, with CCPF patient Fu Jia
I have been a CCPF volunteer since 2007. Although I am not a surgeon or physician, I have been able to contribute translation services to the CCPF team, drawing upon my studies in medical school in China. My experiences with CCPF have inspired me to change my life goals. In 2008, I changed my focus of study from medicine to journalism with an eye to introducing China’s medical environment to a wider audience. I look forward to staring my doctoral study in the area of health communication, with a special focus on underserved communities.
Liying Shen is a graduate student in Fudan University, Shanghai. She received her bachelor’s degree in Clinical Medicine in 2008, and her Master’s in communication in 2011. She will continue her doctoral study in health communication at Harvard School of Public Health in September 2011.
Shortly before the mission to Chengdu, CCPF’s medical director Dr. David Roye reached out to Chad Troline, New York regional representative of Synthes, a medical device company based in Switzerland with branch offices throughout the world. In anticipation of CCPF’s work during the Chengdu medical mission, Dr. Roye asked if it would be possible for him to borrow Synthes equipment that the team could use during the Chengdu mission. Mr. Troline did Dr. Roye one better: with his supervisor Steve Schwartz, he arranged the loan of several Synthes instrument systems to CCPF, and put CCPF in touch with Emmanuel Bonhomme, Managing Director of Synthes in China.
Synthes designs tools and equipment to treat a spectrum of bone conditions, ranging from fractures to degenerative diseases and everything in between. Its products are at the forefront of medical innovation in the field of orthopedic surgery. After learning about CCPF and its mission in China, Mr. Bonhomme became an enthusiastic supporter of the organization and donated all of the implants that the orthopedic surgery team used in its procedures on this mission, which included the world’s most modern hip plate instrumentation for children.
One of the recipients of Synthes’s generosity is Fu Jia, a five-year-old girl who lives in a Jiangxi orphanage. Fu Jia has osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone syndrome, and at her young age has already broken both of her arms and legs multiple times. Her x-rays show bones that are curved like strung bows. Like the other children who came to Chengdu’s Women and Children’s Hospital, though, Fu Jia doesn’t let her medical condition define her or dampen her spirit. She is gregarious with strangers and loves to sing songs. Unfortunately, there is no known cure for osteogenesis imperfecta, so CCPF’s orthopedics team focused on mitigating some of the effects that the condition has had on Fu Jia’s body. Specifically, the team decided to use some of the hardware donated by Synthes to straighten Fu Jia’s right leg.
Fu Jia, singing to the recovery room staff after surgery to correct the curvature of her leg.
On this mission, after the surgical procedures, the children spend time with volunteer nurse Ashley Zook in the recovery room. Understandably, the effects of anesthesia after a surgical procedure leave some of the children disoriented and quiet. Fu Jia, on the other hand, woke up from her five-hour-long procedure singing songs.
Synthes’s generosity in providing medical equipment to CCPF marks something of a sea change in China’s relationship with philanthropy. Traditionally in China, generosity extended only as far as family or clan connections: people regularly give money to family or clan members in need, but charity to strangers has historically been a top-down affair, with the central and provincial governments directing charitable drives for the victims of natural disasters within the country. And this makes sense in a country that has, until the reforms of the past thirty-five years, lacked a middle class of any kind: it’s hard to blame someone with limited financial resources for taking care of those close to them instead of strangers. In 2008, the earthquake that struck the area of Sichuan north of Chengdu was the catalyst for truly voluntary philanthropy among China’s middle class, where sympathy for strangers coincided with some degree of disposable income.
And there are signs that this change in perspective has extended beyond the victims of the 2008 earthquake: when Fu Jia and her caregiver flew in to Chengdu, they hailed a cab to take them to the Women and Children’s Hospital. During the drive, they told their cab driver about what had brought them to Chengdu. At the end of the drive, the cabbie gave his phone number to Fu Jia’s caregiver and promised to take her and Fu Jia back to the airport, free of charge, when the time came for them to return to the orphanage. This act of generosity is only one of a countless number of similar good works by everyone involved in CCPF’s missions, from host hospitals to foster families and orphanage staff, and from companies like Synthes to regular citizens like Fu Jia’s Chengdu cab driver. CCPF’s medical missions would not be possible without the generous participation of them all, and CCPF extends its sincere gratitude to everyone who has made this year’s mission to Chengdu possible.
Fu Jia, with volunteer OR nurse Louise Strickland.
A Story of Three Siblings
Shuangyou, Lele and Tianyang (l. to r.), with their foster brother Tianbao (in light blue) and their foster father Andrew Chung.
Tianyang, Lele and Shuangyou made the two-day trip with their foster father from Guangxi province to Chengdu’s Women and Children’s Hospital. The treatment that each of them has received from the CCPF staff illustrates the way that CCPF has functioned in China over the course of its twelve-year history.
Lele, with her brother Shuangyou.
Lele was born with no nose as a result of a condition called a midline cleft. Children born with severe midline clefts rarely survive childbirth, but Lele is, with the exception of her cleft, a happy and healthy ten-year-old girl. In a group of strangers, she prefers to read books, but laughs and jokes when she’s with her siblings. Several years ago, she underwent surgery to build a nose using parts of her rib and forehead, and she came to Chengdu now for an evaluation concerning a follow-up procedure. A child with a nose anomaly like Lele’s typically requires follow-up procedures because the surgically constructed nose grows at a rate out of proportion to the rest of the body. Lele came to Chengdu so that CCPF’s plastic surgery team could assess whether team member Dr. Sam Rhee could perform that follow-up procedure.
Dr. Rhee quickly concluded that he didn’t have enough information to perform Lele’s procedure. Children with midline clefts lack the bone structure in the middle of the face that would support a reconstructed nose, so, without a CT scan, performing surgery on Lele’s nose would be like building a house without knowing anything about the underlying foundation. Also, Lele’s surgery will involve a set of specialized equipment specific to this type of procedure. So, while Lele won’t undergo surgery during this medical mission, CCPF’s plastic surgery team will arrange for her to have a CT scan in anticipation of next year’s trip.
Tianyang, in the revery room after his surgery.
Tianyang’s medical condition concerns his digestive tract (Dr. Eric Lazar wrote about Tianyang and his brother Tianbao during last year’s mission to Nanchang here). He received emergency surgery several years ago, which ultimately resulted in a later procedure to give him a colostomy bag. Dr. Lazar of CCPF’s General/ UI team assessed him during last year’s mission to Nanchang, and determined at that time that he was probably not a candidate for a corrective procedure because it appeared unlikely that Tianyang had the muscle activity that would allow him to live without a colostomy bag.
On this trip, Dr. Lazar decided to double check Tianyang’s condition, and was delighted to find that Tianyang had a greater degree of muscle reactivity than what was observed last year in Nanchang. With this new information, Dr. Lazar performed Tianyang’s corrective procedure on Tuesday. Assuming all goes well with Tianyang’s post-operative care, on CCPF’s next mission, Tianyang’s colostomy bag will be removed. The impact that this will have on the quality of his daily life is hard to overstate: while China has taken significant steps to make public accommodations more accessible to people with disabilities or health conditions requiring extraordinary care, for Tianyang, visiting a public restroom with a colostomy bag poses a significant challenge. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Lazar and the CCPF team, Tianyang is on his way to life without that challenge.
Shuangyou.
Shuangyou was born with shortened forearms. His hands are missing three fingers, and the two fingers that he was born with are fused together. At five years old, he’s developed an incredible array of tools to work around these disabilities, and in the CCPF playroom, he keeps up with his siblings in almost every respect. One afternoon, while putting a puzzle together, he attracted a small crowd of patients’ grandparents, who were impressed with Shuangyou’s ability to handle the small pieces of the puzzle. Few things can rival the power of the Sichuan peasant to stare at anything out of the ordinary, but Shuangyou had been through this before: he ignored his audience and remained completely, unselfconsciously absorbed in the puzzle.
CCPF Medical Director and orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Roye and the orthopedic team examined Shuangyou to see if he would benefit from a corrective procedure. Like Lele’s, Shuangyou’s case presents a number of questions to which the CCPF team simply doesn’t have answers at this point. With cases like Shuangyou’s, where fingers are fused together, nerves often run directly from one finger to the other, and severing them to give Shuangyou two separate fingers may actually decrease the extent to which Shuangyou can use his hands. Given these risks, and in light of Shuangyou’s remarkable adaptability, the orthopedics team decided against surgery, but will use videos, photos and x-rays of Shuangyou to consult with a hand surgeon upon return to the United States.
These three stories, involving each of the three surgical teams on this medical mission, illustrate CCPF’s approach to serving the medical needs of orphans with disabilities. One of the strengths of CCPF is that the medical professionals on the volunteer team have a clear sense of the limitations inherent in a weeklong medical mission, but are also aware of the potential in working with patients over a series of missions. In 1996, I was attracted to volunteer with the Peace Corps due in part to the fact that it involved a two-year commitment. Peace Corps also appealed to me because of the modesty of its goals: to meet a need in the host country, to educate host country citizens about America, and to educate Americans about the host country. At first blush, CCPF’s eight-day mission in Chengdu may seem the antithesis of the long-term approach embraced by Peace Corps, but that disregards the fact that CCPF has been working with hospitals in China for more than a decade. CCPF’s long-term vision is reflected in the fact that about half of the members of the volunteer team have participated in prior medical missions, and, as Lele’s, Tianbao’s and Shuangyou’s stories illustrate, the team often treats patients over the course of several medical missions. CCPF’s goals are also simultaneously modest and profound: twenty-eight patients will receive corrective procedures by the end of this mission, a tiny fraction of the number of similarly situated children in need – but those procedures have had a profound impact on the lives of those children.
Shuangyou, working on a puzzle in the play room.
Mike Goettig is an attorney in New York and a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in China from 1996 to 1999. This is his first CCPF volunteer mission.
The Chengdu Women and Children's Hospital warmly welcomed the members of the 2011 CCPF mission.
My first trip with the CCPF team began on Wednesday morning, when my wife Kathryn and I picked up Dr. Eda Chao on our way to the JFK airport. Our livery cab driver wore a baseball jersey with “Brooklyn” lettered across the front and had a tattoo of drama masks on his inner forearm. On the way to the airport, he told me stories about growing up in the neighborhood where Eda, Kathryn and I live, back when it was a much rougher place. “One time,” he said, “when I was twelve years old, I was walking home from school and a guy about three times my age pulled a knife on me and took my coat.” It was hard to believe that the neighborhood we were driving through, a historic district with charming brownstones and cherry blossoms falling from the trees, was so dramatically different such a short time ago.
In the back seat, Kathryn and Eda talked about the upcoming medical mission to Chengdu. Our plan was to meet the other members of the team and head to a new hospital for women and children on the western outskirts of the city. Curious, our driver asked where we were going. China, we told him. “Wow,” he said. “That place is better than here, I’ll tell you that.” I thought back on some of the places I’d seen over the seven years that I’d spent in China. “It depends on where you go,” I told him.
My first trip to Chengdu was as a Peace Corps volunteer, in 1996. The Peace Corps group landed on a humid summer day, and it took us ten minutes to walk from the jet through the airport and into the push of cab drivers looking for fares. We loaded onto a bus and rode on dusty roads in the semi-rural area beyond Chengdu’s third ring road in the southern part of the city. Tile-covered cement high-rises dominated Chengdu’s landscape. This time around was like visiting an entirely new city. Eda, Kathryn and I flew into the Shuangliu International Airport, a sprawling glass and steel structure outside the Chengdu city limits, which had expanded well beyond a fourth ring road. On our way to the baggage claim area, we passed advertisements for an international luxury villa with a golf course and a sky bluer than any I’d ever seen in Sichuan. In the cab on the way into the city, we passed showrooms for Jaguar, Lexus and Mercedes Benz. Driving through the city, we passed skyscrapers that would not have looked out of place on the Manhattan skyline. China’s economic boom was evident from the moment we stepped off the plane, and I could understand how, on first impression, China could strike a Brooklyn livery cab driver as a better place to live than a neighborhood where twelve-year-olds were held up at knifepoint. The cabbie’s story no longer struck me as unbelievable: if Chengdu could reinvent itself so dramatically in less than a decade, why should I doubt that a neighborhood in Brooklyn did as well?
But initial impressions are often misleading. Notwithstanding the incredible rate of change in Chengdu’s physical landscape, this much remains the same: significant segments of the population live in poverty with little access to the benefits that economic development brings. The goal of CCPF’s mission to Chengdu is to provide medical care to orphans and impoverished children whose families and caretakers can’t afford sorely needed corrective surgeries. This year’s team is comprised of twenty-eight volunteers from China and the United States, and is scheduled to perform surgeries on twenty-eight children.
The CCPF volunteers met on Friday morning and traveled to the newly-constructed Chengdu Women and Children’s Medical Center to the west of the city. The first day at the hospital, the group divided up into three teams: orthopedics, plastic, and urology/ general. Word of our visit had spread before our arrival, and each team spent half the day assessing the children who had been brought to the hospital for their suitability for surgery.
About half of the team members had participated in prior medical missions to China, so, having been through the process before, they had a clear idea of the procedures involved in assessing the patients. The first-time volunteers also quickly fell into a working rhythm with each other for evaluating each patient’s condition. Remarkably, fewer than ten of the children who were assessed were deemed unsuitable candidates for surgery, generally due either to the complexity of the required procedure or an acute health condition, such as a cold, that would increase the likelihood of complications.
Wang Yating, in the play room the day after her surgery.
After the children were assessed, the medical team gathered in a conference room and established a schedule for the following six days. The Women and Children’s Medical Center has generously made two of their operating rooms available to the team, and from three to seven procedures are scheduled for each day, ranging from cleft palate repair to hamstring releases. Already, the surgical teams have performed nine surgeries. The nine-month-old child who had a procedure on Saturday to repair a cleft lip was in the playroom on Sunday, her spirits good and a small line of stitches under her nose the only sign that she’d had surgery the day before.
Something happens to a group of people who come together for a common purpose, when each member of the team has a role to play in achieving a shared goal. The CCPF volunteers have worked together as a team for only three days, but already, the members of the team share a sense of collegiality and familiarity that, in other settings, may take years to develop. In a changed city, the CCPF team is changing the lives of orphans and impoverished children. But the change doesn’t stop there: in getting to know the children, their parents and caretakers, the staff of the Women and Children’s Medical Center, and each other, each member of the CCPF team has already been changed for the better.
Mike Goettig is an attorney in New York and a former Peace Corps volunteer who served in China from 1996 to 1999. This is his first CCPF volunteer mission. He is married to Kathryn Blouin, CCPF volunteer pediatrics nurse, whom he met in Chengdu in 2002.
