Da Lat

Da Lat is a city in the mountains west of where we are working. As it is at 5000 ft. The climate is very different and the hillsides are covered with vegetables and coffee.




- View from one of the hotels


One of the places we visited was the summer palace of the last king. Some of the group decided to play the role of the monarchy.




It was a nice relaxing weekend.

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Than's Story

Than is a young man that's was born without a left ear. He was teased a lot about it by his schoolmates. Last year we began the process of building him an ear by using cartiledge from his ribs.
He returned to the team this year to have the next step. This time we placed a skin graft behind the cartiledge to lift it from his head.


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Before the skin graft




After

He will need another procedure next year to complete things.

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One lip at a time

The first patient we did was a 14 year old from one of the mountain villages. He had not gone to school because the other children teased him. Because the family lives so far, they had never made it to one of the many teams that come to the country. We were told to do him the first day because he might leave.




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Going into the operating room





Next morning

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A Rocky Start

Don't usually talk about the trip, but this was an interesting adventure. Snow to get to the airport. Canceled flight. Rebooked with good connections only to spend an hour on the ground in Hartford thus missing the rebooked Washington connection by about 15 min. Fly to Newark to catch the original flight the next day.
Did arrive to help with the afternoon of the screening clinic. We have about 50 patients scheduled.
Dinner was provided by the nuns at a local Buddhist monastery.


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