Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam — April 1-12, 2009
By Ginger H. Robinson, BSN, RN, President

On April 1-12, 2009 our twenty-third international team returned to Vietnam for the nineteenth time. The FTC team included:

1. Randy Robinson, MD, DDS, Craniomaxillofacial Surgeon, Centennial, CO, Leader
2. CAPT. Belinda "BC" Shauver, CRNA, MBA, Nurse Anesthetist, Jacksonville, Florida
3. Michelle Jaskunas, RN, BSN, CNOR, CST, Operating Room Nurse, Denver, CO
4. Cindy Niles, RN, Operating Room Nurse, Golden, CO
5. Gabi Stoeger-Stevens, BSN, RN, Post-Anesthesia Care Nurse, Evergreen, CO
6. Mrs. Ginger Robinson, BSN, RN, Liaison/Post-Anesthesia Care, Centennial, CO.

On April 4-8 the FTC team joined six members of the staff of the Odontomaxillofacial Hospital, District 1, of Ho Chi Minh City, including:

1. Le Thi Viet, DDS, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Department Director, Leader
2. Pham Nghiem Chanh, Surgeon
3. Le Van Kim, MD, Anesthesiologist
4. Nguyen Huong Phong, Anesthetist
5. Le Thi Canh, Operationg Room Nurse
6. Ho The My, Surgical Assistant.

They traveled together four hours each way by bus to Phan Thiet. This fishing city is in Binh Thuan Province in southern Vietnam. These two teams shared monitors, cautery units and pads, suture, and medications. They used these items as they operated on 12 pediatric and adolescent patients with cleft lip, cleft palate, and nasal cleft and facial cleft deformities at the Binh Thuan Province General Hospital. They valued the tropical sunrises at Mui Ne Beach over the South China Sea before they began the surgeries. And they appreciated the gracious hosts from the Department of Health in Binh Thuan Province.

On April 8 the team returned to Ho Chi Minh City. They joined the staff at the National Hospital of Odontostomatology (NHOS) in District 5. In three hours they screened ~30 patients. Some patients had returned for post-operative checks after the FTC team operated on them in April 2008. Others had facial scarring from infections (nomas) or injuries (extensive fractures and loss of eyes or blindness) especially from motor vehicle accidents. Some patients had deformities from asymmetric or deficient growth. And several had tumors, some newly-diagnosed (e.g. ameloblastomas) and others that had existed for over a decade (e.g. giant cell).

Dr. Robinson did six lengthy surgeries on April 9-10. They were done with Lam Hoai Phuong, MD, PhD and the attending surgeons and surgical residents at his side. As the cases progressed, Dr. Robinson stepped aside so the Vietnamese surgeons could complete the cases with his guidance. These patients presented with structurally difficult airway and required the use of craniofacial surgery instruments, placing titanium bone plates and screws, and harvesting hip and rib cartilage bone grafts.

The surgery residents continue to use as their reference the introduction to orthognathic (jaw) surgery guidebook Dr. Robinson and Ginger Robinson wrote and gave to the staff in April 2006. FTC plans to reinforce the latest techniques the Vietnamese have learned, including pharyngopalatoplasties (palate closure) and mandibulectomies (lower jaw removal when the tumor is too large to spare the jaw). Further, they hope to teach more about post-operative care, including fluid and pain management.

Thus far the patients have recovered well and their families remain deeply grateful. The team members "caught the vision of His tears." They saw childhood's helplessness and parental grief and they recognized the exhaustion of sorrow. Yet, without recoil, they poured out His compassion to those who most needed His grace and hope. We look forward to the twentieth trip to Vietnam.