At 8:30 last night as we were going back to the guest house for the night we walked through the hospital lobby and there were already several families there waiting for the Rotaplast pre-op clinic which doesn't start until 9:00 am the next morning. It really made me think about the importance of what these missions do, and how life changing it is for the recipients of the surgeries. It brings such hope to the families, that they are willing to travel for days, and spend the night in a hospital reception room waiting for the opportunity to have their child examined and have the possibility of a life changing surgery.
Breakfast started at 7:00 am and after a good breakfast we set up to start the pre-op clinic.
At 9:00 am, we were told that about 150 families were waiting at the upstairs screening area,
and at 8:30 after we had set up the exam rooms, the downstairs reception area started filling
up with families waiting for their turn to see the doctors.
It is now 10:30 am and the line in the reception room does not seem to be getting any shorter.
We see child after child, some with severe deformities, and some with very mild conditions.
It is now 5:00pm and we have seen around 120 people, mostly children. Tomorrow the real work
starts with day one of surgery. I can't help but think about how life changing this is for those
who have been chosen, and how devastating it is for those who have not.
Two things from the day that really stuck in my mind was the young mother who was sobbing uncontrollably just from the possiblity that her child's deformity was going to be repaired, and the couple who had traveled 160 kilometers because they had heard there was a possibility that the Rotaplast doctors could fix their baby's problem. Both have been chosen for surgery this week!