Often the first thoughts that come to mind about plastic surgery are: money and cosmetics. This might be true in some parts of the UK and the US, but is far from the truth out here.
The team here is lead by a Nepali born surgeon who chanced upon a career in plastic surgery after observing a team of American surgeons fix a cleft palate. After being trained by them he set up the outreach service and the team has continued to grow. Now there are surgeons, residents (SHO's), speech therapists, nurses and a group of administrators that keep the donations coming in.
We're used to healthcare being free in the UK, but for these thousands of operations a year to be performed for free out here is pretty amazing. Sometimes they get patients to pay around 1% of the actual cost. It seems that if patients pay a little for their treatment, then they take it more seriously and comply with follow up. But the majority of these operations are provided completely free.
I've been trying to steer clear of posting surgical photos, but I thought I should illustrate just how big a deal these free surgeries are. So above is a basic picture showing how a cleft palate is closed - cleft palates and lips form the majority of their work. And below is a sample of four patients I saw the other day each with post-burn contractures. All have now been operated on, and have had full function of their hand/foot returned to them:
The team here is lead by a Nepali born surgeon who chanced upon a career in plastic surgery after observing a team of American surgeons fix a cleft palate. After being trained by them he set up the outreach service and the team has continued to grow. Now there are surgeons, residents (SHO's), speech therapists, nurses and a group of administrators that keep the donations coming in.
We're used to healthcare being free in the UK, but for these thousands of operations a year to be performed for free out here is pretty amazing. Sometimes they get patients to pay around 1% of the actual cost. It seems that if patients pay a little for their treatment, then they take it more seriously and comply with follow up. But the majority of these operations are provided completely free.
I've been trying to steer clear of posting surgical photos, but I thought I should illustrate just how big a deal these free surgeries are. So above is a basic picture showing how a cleft palate is closed - cleft palates and lips form the majority of their work. And below is a sample of four patients I saw the other day each with post-burn contractures. All have now been operated on, and have had full function of their hand/foot returned to them:
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