'Operation Smile' patients doing well after surgery, doctor says
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer
Two girls from the Philippines who underwent difficult cranio-facial surgery over the weekend are doing well in post-operative care, according to the "Operation Smile" anesthesiologist who was on their medical team.
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"The kids are good this morning," Dr. Robert Rubin said yesterday.
Before the girls had surgery, Dr. Willie Go of Manila spent time with Jizzle Mae Carillo, left, and her mother, Emily, and Jocelyn Leona and her mother, Georgina.
The California physician and chief medical officer for "Operation Smile" worldwide had flown to Hawai'i for the weekend surgeries on Jizzle Mae Carillo, 7, and Jocelyn Leona, 14. Both are from rural areas in Davao in the Philippines.
"Both children tolerated the procedures very well and will recuperate for several days at Tripler (Army Medical Center) and then go on to the World Healing Institute (of Hawai'i) on the Big Island," said Rubin before he boarded a plane back to California.
"They've seen their mothers and both mothers were extremely happy and crying."
Surgery took 11 hours for the younger child on Saturday and six hours for the older girl Sunday, and both are now in the Tripler intensive care unit. Their mothers are sleeping on cots next to each child's bed.
"Jocelyn has seen herself," said Karen Douglass, program director for the World Healing Institute of Hawai'i, the program that will handle their post-operative care. "She just kind of smiled a little bit."
The humanitarian effort is a partnership among the international medical care mission "Operation Smile" based in Norfolk, Va., Tripler, the Defense Department and the Big Island-based WHIH founded by Alletta Bell to offer a psychological and emotional healing component for the children after the life-changing surgery.
The birth defects, called frontonasal encephalocele, are far more common in the developing world and may be linked to prenatal malnutrition and some vitamin deficiencies. In the United States, they occur at a rate of about one to three per 100,000 live births, while they occur at a rate of about one in every 2,500 to 3,000 live births in developing nations.
"The mothers said their daughters look beautiful," Douglass said. And that was despite having heads wrapped in bandages and plaster guards across their noses to protect the surgical incisions.
The delicate surgeries required a team of 30 to 50 volunteer medical and support personnel, and included three physicians from the Philippines who were in the operating room as observers. The doctors from the Philippines hope to set up a similar collaborative effort to offer this surgery in their country for families unable to afford it.
The Hawai'i collaboration plans to bring three more children to the Islands in September for what will be the third effort.
"There are about 17 children we've pre-screened already," Rubin said. "We look at age, health, how big the defect is and any other congenital problems that would complicate surgery. Because everybody's volunteering we try to match up the surgeons' skills with the needs of the children."
In its 22 years, "Operation Smile" has repaired birth defects in more than 70,000 children in 21 countries. Just this week a mission was launched in China with about 35 personnel who will operate in the next 10 days on cleft lips and cleft palates of 150 to 200 children.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
