Reconstructive Surgery in Tra Vinh, Vietnam
Tra Vinh, Vietnam - Ian Wilson, Webster Fellow and plastic surgeon: Our surgical trip here in Tra Vinh, Vietnam is going quite well. We are in a town of 70,000 which is definitely not on the tourist trail. We work at a local government hospital which is busy dealing with common illnesses. So far we’ve seen 70-80 patients in clinic, and successfully completed some cleft lip and palate repairs and burn reconstructions. All are recovering well so far. Despite some intermittent surgical trips to this rural area, not all cleft kids have been repaired, so we have a bit of a backlog to work through. There is a great need for burn reconstruction here as well.
The patient shown here just had her cleft lip repaired. The child is very unhappy because her mouth feels different, the stitches are itchy, and she is in a strange hospital with tall and pale foreigners. The mother, however, is perfectly thrilled. Many pictures of patients after their surgeries do not do justice to the gratitude that is felt by relatives, and will soon be felt by the patient after the healing process winds down.
Here are some more photos from the surgical team.