Our 2024 Guatemala Cleft Trip: Surgeries Begin

Hola from the beautiful city of Antigua, Guatemala as we report on our first full day of cleft surgeries.

Twelve beautiful children had their operations today, and our team loved getting to know each of the families more.

First up on the schedule was tiny Gretal, who was Dr. Tollefson’s first patient of the week. This sweet baby girl is six months old and charmed all of us with her happy smiles before heading back to the OR for surgery.

Gretal’s mom was of course very nervous to have her precious little girl taken back to the OR for her lip surgery. They were reunited just a few hours later, and the relief her mom felt was immense. She told us she knows this will be a lifelong change for her daughter, and she feels so grateful to the people who support these types of cleft trips.

As we left the ward tonight, little Gretal was already sharing her sweet smile again, despite her stitches!

Another baby on the schedule today was adorable Eric. He is the youngest baby on our schedule, at just 2 months old….but one of the chubbiest babies as well. And just look at his amazing head of hair!

Eric and his mother traveled seven hours by ambulance to see our team, and his mom was overjoyed to learn that her little boy was accepted for surgery.

Eric was the last patient of the day for our team, so Mom was very worried about him not being able to eat all day. We kept reassuring her, and thankfully he was able to sleep a lot during the day as he awaited his turn.

When his operation was finished late in the day, Eric’s mom was brought to the recovery room to reunite with her precious son. She was overwhelmed with emotion and wasn’t able to stop her tears upon seeing her little boy’s new look for the first time.

Isn’t he so handsome?

One of the most difficult cases of the day was little Steven. This tiny little boy only weighs 12 pounds at two years of age. When he was just a tiny infant, Steven was diagnosed with extreme malnutrition and moved to a nutrition center where a feeding tube was placed.

He has been tube fed since he was three months old but has still struggled to gain weight.

With hopes that cleft surgery would help his feeding, the nutrition center sent Steven to different surgery teams three separate times. All three times the other teams refused to operate. We are very grateful to our surgeons and pediatric anesthesiologists who felt confident they could perform his surgery.

It was a very complex procedure, and he had a very tough time in recovery, but we are happy to report Steven is stable on the ward and was able to be tube fed once again. Let’s all be cheering this little fighter on in his recovery!

Tomorrow we have another full day of surgeries, so please be thinking of all the children on the preparing and waiting for their turn.

We are so grateful to everyone who supports our medical work around the world. You are truly changing lives every day!

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