Miracle smile

Those born with a cleft lip or palate are particularly sorrowful examples of cruel fate, and their suffering as well as that of their parents and others who love them can only be imagined. It is thus right to consider those who are able to help these children and others with facial deformities as heroes in their own right—such as the women and men of “Operation Smile.”

Now an international medical charity, Operation Smile was founded in 1982 by the couple Bill and Kathy Magee, plastic surgeon and nurse-social worker, respectively. The Magees and their volunteers first came to the Philippines in the same year, with the conviction that children with a cleft lip or palate can and should be helped. Not only did they find so many children to help, they also realized that they had to do more. Today Operation Smile counts thousands of medical professionals working as volunteers from more than 80 countries, and has forged alliances with local governments, hospitals and NGOs worldwide. “Every child that has a facial deformity is our responsibility. If we don’t take care of that child, there’s no guarantee that anyone else will,” says Kathy Magee, now Operation Smile president and board member.

Operation Smile has performed more than 220,000 free surgeries on children born with a cleft lip or palate and other facial deformities. Of that number, more than 25,000 have been performed in the Philippines.

It has in fact just concluded its 33rd mission in the country—a nine-day, five-site outreach activity that targeted 750 indigent Filipinos in Manila, Bacolor in Pampanga, and the cities of Cebu, Bacolod and Davao. This latest mission had a distinctly international flavor: 147 medical volunteers from 16 foreign countries (from Australia to Vietnam) and 154 from the Philippines.

“If we don’t lend a hand to our Filipino colleagues, many of these unfortunate children will remain untreated and face a bleak future,” Dr. Joan Manyama, an anesthesiologist from Kenya, told Inquirer reporter Tarra Quismundo.

More young Filipinos face this bleak future than it appears. Every year, an estimated 5,000 Filipinos—or one out of every 500—are born with a cleft lip or palate. In 2013, according to the Philippine Birth Defect Registry, cleft palate ranked among the top 12 birth defects in the country. Moreover, there is an estimated backlog of 100,000 cases between 1982 and 2014.

The renewed hope brought about by Operation Smile is a testament to its life-changing impact. In 2013, 10-year-old “JS” said he kept starting a fight whenever other boys couldn’t understand what he was saying. The medical charity changed all that. Even older Filipinos with facial deformities have benefited from the missions, such as 26-year-old “JD,” who earlier had to leave his job because of difficulties arising from his cleft palate. And, as reported yesterday by Inquirer correspondents Carmel Loise Matus and Carla P. Gomez, 57-year-old Jose Villegas never tires of speaking about how, at 26 and with a two-pound tumor hanging from his chin, he was a depressed, despairing recluse—until Bill Magee and Operation Smile volunteers excised the tumor and restored both his face and his life.

These stories make up Operation Smile’s big picture. The scale of the medical charity is off the charts: It deploys its volunteers in over 60 countries to perform the surgeries and to train local medical personnel as well.

The Philippines clearly remains a priority. From its global headquarters in Virginia in the United States, Operation Smile sent $1.3 million worth of medicines, supplies and equipment for this mission. “We’ve done the drill a thousand times so it’s more or less routine for us,” explained logistics and management vice president Jesse Hines. “But knowing that this will help heal 750 indigent cleft children still gives me and my crew a lump in the throat.”

That passion and compassion are why the Inquirer has repeatedly lauded Operation Smile and its wondrous mission in this space. Yet more can be said of the Magees and the local and foreign volunteers who have helped countless families in the Philippines and elsewhere on the planet. It is thanks to their work and dedication that lives of despair are reversed, that the world continues to witness the miracle of a smile.