Merci du fond du cœur et chapeau bas à l’équipe chirurgicale de Tom Flood qui s’apprête à inoculer des petits de chez moi avec ce qu’il ya de plus contagieux: le sourire! Des chirurgiens chevronnés de la choses maxillo-faciale, supportés par une équipe hors pair d’anesthésistes, pédiatres, infirmières.. quittera New York le 11 Mai prochain, direction Taroudant. Parmi eux des mecs qui n’ont jamais entendu parler du Maroc (ça existe) encorre moins de Taroudant, ont décidé de tout planquer pendant une semaine pour un sourire. Leur mission purement bénévole, est un simple présent au plaisir de pouvoir le faire et la cause vaut bien la chandelle. Chapeau!
Un grand merci au Dr M. Ferhaoui médecin chef de
pour son hospitalité, son aide, et son support qui vont bien au-delà du scoop de son travail et ses responsabilités. L’honneur est pour moi qu’un monsieur de calibre pareil accepte mon amitié.
Merci aussi au Dr. El Ouidali médecin chef de SIAAP, ancien pote de classe et aux membres de l’association des ORL d’Agadir, au leadership de l’Opération Smile Morocco, et le reste d’une centaine d’individus que j’ai côtoyé de près ou de loin lors de la phase de préparation pour la mission. Vous m’avez fait l’honneur de me recevoir, de m’écouter de m’éclairer, de me conseiller et de me supporter sans réservations, j’en suis très ému, et j’en suis
fière jusqu’au plus profond de ma marocanité.
Si vous me lisez et si vous connaissez des enfants nés avec des difformités maxillo-faciales, fente labio-palatines.. ou qui auraient la malchance de tomber victimes d’une mésaventure ou un accident défigurant (brulures, aplasies..etc) qui pourraient bénéficier d’une correction chirurgicale n’hésitez pas de contacter
Un Blog pour lire les participants et communiquer directement avec les membres de l’équipe chirurgicale est en cours de réalisation. Passez donc nous voir ici pour dire bonjour de temps en temps si ça vous dit.
J’espère pouvoir aviser les membres de l’équipe le plutôt possible de l’existence de ce site et espère qu’ils nous tiennent au courant au fur et à mesure. Je demanderai spécialement au Dr E. J. de poster des photos reportage si les conditions le permettent.
E. J. I know you can read me well in french.
Moh
9 comments:
Hi,
I first would like to thank Dr Akhityat for doing the site selection and site visit. Without his assistance we would not be having a trip. He is also responsible getting this blog up and renning.
It is the first time we ahdve had one on a trip and I hope that everyone uses it to ask questions or share comments.
I spoke with Dr Mohamed Farhaoui yesterday and he is the Chief Doctor in the Provience. Everything seems to me moving along without any problems. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Regards,
Tom
Mission Coordinator
The House of Charity
Hey Tom
Thanks for the post and I’m glad you approve of the blog idea which I hope will be useful and informative.
I Emailed the entire team and invited them to post questions, ideas, reactions.. etc throughout the trip and encourage everyone to post discoveries, pics whatever and share their thoughts with family friends and the web at large.
Some of you asked me questions about the hospital, the town, the people and I’ll try to cover what Google doesn’t and share with the rest.
The hospital is really nice has some beautiful trees and gardens and located at the heart of the ancient city (Tom has the technicals). It is located 5 to 10 mn walking distance from the hotel along imposing ancient ramparts full of history. You’ll love it! The hotel is an ancient “Kasbah” remodeled into a 4* which I noticed as I had to pay $5 for my bottle of water (<$1 at the “souk”).
Dress light, evenings are cool and you may need a sweater. Sun glasses are recommended as the sun is too bright, and if the wind blows it may get dusty.
Lunch is a big enterprise in Morocco. If you’re invited for lunch (I was told you may) and your PM OR schedule is stuffed ,the host may not want to let you get back on time. Lunch is 4 to 7 courses and you won’t get the menu up front.
Taroudant people are more laid back than what you may think or you may have seen elsewhere. “no problem” is a word you’ll be hearing very often. Believe it! :)
Car drivers blow their horns all the time, everywhere and from nowhere.. Just for fun. No panic! They mean no harm, and they know how to drive on as well as off road and tightly somewhere in between. Trust your taxi driver, and let him know. Don't drive.
If the OR schedule is hectic (we are used to it) and if you have some juice left at the end of the day you may walk to the souk: Bunch of stuff, exotic and beautiful things to buy or just look at. Yep! They take dollars. ($1=8.45MDH) (Moroccan Durhams)you MUST bargain, it's THE Moroccan way and it's fun and very affordable. don't let the sugar in the minted tea carry you too far away.
That’s all the time I have for today
Moh
Hello everyone. I'm very pleased to be a part of this mission and look forward to working with all of you. Thanks to moh for setting this blog up though I was initially put off by the intro in French. But I understand French is the common second language of Morocco, so we should begin getting accustomed.
Regards to all,
Don Westheimer, MD
Anesthesiologist
Thanks for the post Don.
I posted in French hoping to attract our French Moroccan colleagues and encourage them to participate. Please feel free (all of you) to participate and post in any language you want. I sent everyone of you an invite which should allow you to have posting and editing privileges. Please let me know if you didn’t get it or if you have a problem.
Dr. B Manal a young and charming Moroccan Doc who is fluent in English agreed to travel from Rabat and help us out. She’ll be a great asset, please give her a hand.
Thanks a bunch Manal!
Moh
Hello all,
First of all, I applaud this effort and everybody involved. I live in washington DC but I am originally from Taroudant and would like to offer my assistance in every way possible. For starters, I could arrange for TV coverage if you don't mind since it happened to be my line of business. It woud be helpful if you could tell me more about the program,e.g: how may doctors are involved? number of patients you could manage? type of surgeries planned...etc.
Thank you,
Hisham
Hi everyone,
I'm a Moroccan Dental Hygienist based in Chicago, i would love to offer my help if required, can you please tell me more about the mission. It's part of our dental program to volunteer in the maxillofacial center, it should be no problem with the translation as i speak fluent Moroccan, French and English.
thanks
Nawal
Hi ya'll!
Hisham & naoualk-> Thnx for the interest!
Hisham-> we can use all the help we can get to recruit as many patients as the team can handle (200 to 250) triaged down to 70-80 feasible-indicated cases) would be a fair guess). the team specializes in surgical repairs of cleft lips/palates in pediatrics patients mainly. Other surgical procedures such as repair of some burn sequelae, ENT..etc can also be done as time allows. For more details, you may want to email Tom (mission coordinator) his email listed in the post.
by the way do they still have the little French restaurant "Chez Paulette" ?
Nawal-> thnx a bunch, if U happen to be in the area that week U can always drop by, :)
Hi, Randee and I are also looking forward to this trip. Having been on mission trips such as this before we both find it very rewarding as well as fun to meet folks from a different part of the world. We can't wait. Unfortunately our time will be short and spent mostly around the Agadir area after the mission, but hopefully we can find some interesting things to see and do there. Laissez le bons temps rouler! :-)
Hi all,
I am Ayad Chraa, a teacher at Ibn Zohr University.This is what one of my students I sent to help with the translation under the request of Dr Hayou wrote about his experience with the House of Charity.
Thanks for all those who made their stay in Taroudant enjoyable.
The House of Charity
In the shiny sun of last month, El Mokhtar Soussi hospital in Taroudant embraced 18 American doctors, nurses, and medical assistants as volunteers specialized in fixing facial deformities. Noting that those Americans belong to the so-called association" The House of Charity". The House of Charity is a Nonprofit, Charitable Organization providing Life’s Essentials and High Quality Donated Medical and Surgical Care to improve the life & health of Impoverished Children in America and around the World. Their voluntary missions aims at bringing back smiles to hundreds of children and adults as stated in their motto "Making a Special World of Smiles and Happy Faces".
Many students from the department of English at Ibno Zohr University, many of whom are American Language Cnter Journalism Club members, devoted themselves to join the voluntary work in the central hospital of Taroudant with the American team as interpreters such as Meryem Mouhrim, Mouhcin Kharbach, Mberek Ouskouban, Abdenasseur Outograr, Hicham Zaouaoui, myself Brahim Yaroud and many others. Our main job was to hang out with the team to facilitate communication with the local people, as well as to help all of the children and even the adults from becoming impatient or frustrated.
The first day of medical screenings was a site of an overwhelming deformed people, but as the days went on, you barely even realize the cleft lips or cleft palates or burns any more. Throughout the course of this voluntary week, we got the chance to view multiple surgeries inside the operating rooms. The medical part of the mission is enormously supreme than being described with adjectives, but the American team was just amazing .During the course of the trip, they examined more than 100 patients and performed surgery on 104 patients. As stated in their website” The story of our successes cannot be found in any books. It’s engraved in the mind and hearts of children healed!”
Finally, after the mission was accomplished, we were offered certificates as a token for our help that they treasured a lot. The trip was beyond description, a truly wonderful experience that no one of us will forget. Thanks to all of you in" The House of Charity" for the efforts and the divine work you have done in Taroudant, Morocco.
By: Brahim Yaroud
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