Expressive eyes and beautiful smiles is what I saw this morning in wards, parents and patients happy and thankful to have had the surgeries or to have made the list of patients to be operated. I heard a lot of Asante Sana! (thank you very much!).

Bubbly, effervescent 2-year-old Mercy was one such kid who was scheduled to have her burn scar on her arm repaired this morning.

Dr. Bernard Thio (Dr. Boony) feeding Mercy some apple juice as she wakes up after her surgery in the recovery room.

PACU Nurse, Ellen Adams comforts 3-year-old Brian Panga in the recovery room after Dr. Tantri and Dr. Melinda Costa operated on his left hand to release his fingers and repair the burn scars (seen below).

Mom comforting Brian in the PACU.

Zilpa ready to go home after her hand surgery wearing one of the beautiful dresses that Ted Alex brought from New Hampshire. These dresses were donated by “dress a girl around the world”.

Assistant Superintendent of Mount Meru hospital, Dr. Mashala visits the Rotaplast ORs to make sure  the team is getting all the required support. Dr. Mashala with the nurses from Mount Meru, Emanuela and Selina have been supporting the Rotaplast surgeons.

Meet our team of Anesthesiologists

Dr. Neal Fleming, the lead anesthesiologist, has done around two dozen missions with Rotaplast. He has over the years encouraged his residents to be part of the Rotaplast mission and a number of them have become regular members of the Rotaplast team. He has also encouraged his family to participate in the Rotaplast missions, his two sons and daughter have been part of missions in the past. His wife Marguerite has done five missions and is a member of this Rotaplast mission. More on Marguerite in the next blog.

CRNA Hil Tantoco – anesthesiologists on the team from UC Davis Medical center. Hil was with Wall Street, got disenchanted with the financial world, wanted to do something where he could do some good for people, he decided to go to nursing school and has been working at the medical center as a nurse for the last 10 years. He had heard about the Rotaplast missions from lead Anesthesiologist Neal Fleming and another colleague of his who had gone on a mission to Arusha in 2017. Hil jumped on the offer since this was a great opportunity for him to help people and travel around the world which is his passion.

Dr. Puya Hossieni is our third anesthesiologist based out of San Diego. This is his third mission with Rotaplast. Dr. Puya was introduced to Rotaplast by Dr. Neal Fleming. Dr. Hossieni considers himself to be very fortunate to be in this position where he has the opportunity to give back.