UM/JACKSON MEDICAL TEAM TRAVELS TO HAITI TO PERFORM FREE CORRECTIVE SURGERIES

Miami, FL — A team of University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital plastic surgeons, general surgeons, and anesthesiologists recently traveled to Hospital Bernard Mevs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where they performed 28 surgical procedures to treat patients with craniofacial anomalies, including cleft palates and lips. The group – made up of UM/Jackson attending physicians, medical students, and general surgery and plastic surgery residents – travels to Haiti quarterly to operate on patients who normally do not have access to these types of life-changing corrective surgeries.

“We do this to make lives better for these patients and teach our residents and medical students the importance of giving back and concepts of globalization,” said Seth Thaller, M.D., D.M.D., FACS, UM/Jackson chief of plastic surgery and the co-leader of these medical missions with Vincent DeGennaro, M.D., chief of staff for the Miami VA Healthcare System.  “Once started on this path, these physicians will take this as a lifelong responsibility.”

Over the course of four days, the medical team performed more than two dozen surgical cases: bilateral cleft lips, unilateral cleft lips, cleft palates, nasolabial fistula repairs, and congenital hand deformity repair. They treated a total of 32 patients and followed up with two patients whom they had operated on during a previous medical mission.

For the past 12 years, Dr. Thaller and his medical team, which includes anesthesiologists, plastic and general surgeons and pediatric nurses from Jackson Memorial Hospital, have been committed to helping the people of Haiti. The program is a partnership between Jackson Memorial Hospital and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, in collaboration with Project Medishare for Haiti, an organization aimed at improving health conditions for people in the island nation.

“Surgical diseases are quite common in underdeveloped countries and are very amenable to surgical cure,” Dr. Thaller said. “Over the years as we have done these trips, we have had many accomplishments by giving these disfigured patients a chance for a new, improved life.”