ORMOC
CITY, Leyte, March 4 (PNA) -- A total of 186 patients with lip
deformities were treated during a week-long medical mission at Ormoc
District Hospital.
Spearheading the activity is the
non-government organization (NGO) Medical Mission Matters (MMM) with
funding from Smile Train of the USA.
Since its founding on
December 2014, MMM has successfully conducted numerous medical missions
in Iloilo (where its American founder Larry Mally is based), Antique,
Capiz and other areas within Negros Oriental and Occidental. The NGO
reached Southern Leyte thanks to Mally’s friend Ronald Woods who is now a
coordinator of MMM in that area.
Since then, MMM has reached out
to Southern Leyte by holding medical missions in Maasin, Sogod and
Anahawan towns as well as in Bato and Baybay in Leyte. MMM was prompted
to come to Ormoc considering that up to 80 percent of patients in Leyte
and Southern Leyte come from this city.
MMM co-founder Richard
Joseph Cabotaje who is a surgeon of St. Luke’s Medical Center led the
medical team consisting of his fellows from the Philippine Board of
Plastic Surgeons namely Leah Velasco-Victortio who is also a surgeon and
anesthesiologists Ma. Hedwig Reyeg and Claire Maso.
Screening of
patients was held on Feb. 10-16 and the actual surgery on Feb. 23-29.
The patients,
mostly children came from Kananga, Capoocan and Leyte
towns to as far as Almeria in Biliran and Sta. Rita in Samar province.
It was a life-changing experience for the patients and their low-income
families considering that surgery costs PHP60,000 to PHP80,000.
The
team plans to come back here after six months. As early as now, MMM is
enjoining interested patients to sign up by texting or calling the
numbers 0926-673-6410, 0975-894-9340 and 0905-554-2388.
The
NGOs had patients coming from Cebu and Bohol in the Visayas as well as
Surigao, Davao and Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao. MMM operates on cleft
patients ages six months to 72 years old and palate patients ages 15
months to 16 years old. (PNA)
FFC/SQM/FELIX N. CODILLA/EGR
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