May 16 - May 29th, 2012

Happy New Year to all of you and your families.

We still have four months before the next trip to Palestine, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for coming on previous trips, and thank you particularly for coming with us to Palestine from May 16th until the 29^th. As you’ll remember, on the last trip we went to Jenin (in the northern West Bank) and to Hebron (in the south). We also hosted a Basic Life Support team from Operation Smile. These individuals worked in Jenin, Ramallah, and Hebron.

During the upcoming trip, we have planned to form three teams each consisting of an anesthesiologist and CRNA, two surgeons, and a nurse. One team will go to Nablus, another to Ramallah, and the third to Hebron. We are doing this with on-going support from the Palestinian Cleft Society, SmileTrain, and Operation Smile. We hope to have teams of Operation Smile members training Palestinian practitioners in Pediatric Advanced Life Support techniques.

As in previous trips, we’ll do our best to leave together on May 16^th; return is scheduled for May 29^th. We’ll arrive on Thursday the 17^th, travel to Ramallah, and have the Interim Meeting of the Palestinian Cleft Society leadership on Friday the 18^th. This will give all of the team members a chance to get to know each other, and to be reacquainted with members of PCS. On Friday afternoon, we’ll leave for the three locations. The Operation Smile PALS course will start in Ramallah, then go to Nablus, and finish in Hebron.

The Anesthesiologists who are currently coming or potentially coming are Robert Karoukian (San Francisco), Winston Ota (Hawaii), and Janie Magee (UNC, to be determined).

The CRNAs coming are Bobby Silvers (UNC), Tim Hatcher (Los Angeles), with the third to be determined.

The Nurses coming are Cindy van Aalst (UNC), Emma Marks (UNC), with the third to be determined.

The Speech Pathologist coming is Allison Dybdahl (Los Angeles).

The Surgeons committed to coming are Libby Wilson (Los Angeles), Ray Harshbarger (Austin, TX), (possibly Ray’s Craniofacial Fellow), Steve Bureau (Calgary, Canada), Don LaRossa (Philadelphia), and John van Aalst (UNC).

We will request two rooms for the entire time of operating at each of the hospitals.

We will do Orthognathic Surgery in Nablus and in Ramallah. We’ll do a single Orthognathic case a day in these two locations (with primary emphasis on training local surgeons), in addition to cleft-related cases. We are currently putting together all of the supplies for the Ortho cases.

Thanks. This will be the first time that we’ve operated in three locations at once. We’ll need to keep in touch with each other during the week in order to provide the safe care that the Palestinian Cleft Society expects of all of us.

I look forward to staying in touch about any questions you may have.

All the best to you and your families in this great New Year.

John

(On behalf of the Palestinian Cleft Society)

A note from Speech Pathologist, Allison Dybdahl

Allison and Lydia - Speech pathologists at the PCS conference.

I have wanted to go on a cleft palate mission for the past 5 years and was ecstatic that my dream was finally coming true! To be honest my expectations were quite high since this had been a dream for so long, but I must say the trip to the West Bank greatly exceeded my expectations!!! I had the opportunity to travel to Jenin, Jericho and Ramallah and loved the diversity of the rich farmland to the busy city streets. While there, I was able to forge relationships with 6 speech pathologists and begin training them in cleft palate speech evaluation and treatment. Along the way I was welcomed into many clinics, hospitals, centers and patients’ homes and of course at each stop I was graciously greeted with mint tea and a formal sit-down introduction. There were several days I had at least 5 cups of tea because I was greeted warmly by so many individuals! I was also able to participate in 2 cleft screening days where ENTs, plastic surgeons, nurses, orthodontists and speech pathologists worked tirelessly as a team to care for the palestinian children. I was richly rewarded by the stories I heard, the families I met and the doctors I worked with. I experienced such kindness and hospitality that I left feeling like family. There is still much more training and work to do, but the Palestinian Cleft Society is working hard to provide quality and comprehensive care for children with clefts. I look forward to continuing my relationship PCS and all the wonderful staff, specialists and families I was blessed to meet.