A Celebration

Facial Harmony Vietnam is the name of the Medical Group from Eugene Oregon that I am traveling with.  Our last day was Friday and a wonderful presentation of "thank you" was given to the group and myself.  This group I travelled with includes: Dr. Richard Litchfield, retired Dentist that started coming to Hanoi about 12 years ago to help the Doctors here. Dr. Litchfield's wife Jacquie, who has worked teaching English to the staff and patients.  Dr. Brian Allender, an Oral-Maxilo-facial surgeon, who has been coming for the past 6 years.  He works on the surgical correction for cleft palates, and either overbites or underbites and repairs the jaw and upper jaw to better align the two.  Vicky Shook, RN who has been working the Dr. Allender for the past few years in his office and in surgery. Judy Peterson, RN who also works in the OR with Dr. A.  Jim Hayfield, RN who has been an Operating Room nurse down at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene for many years.  Jim is the connection I had for this trip via a nurse at my institution in Everett, WA.  Jim and BJ traveled to Guatamala last January so we connected when the team needed a Recovery Room nurse to travel to Vietnam.

OK, history lesson complete.  Yesterday was our last surgery on a young lady needing both the upper and lower jaw re-aligned.  We were done early and told to be back to the Institue at 2pm.  We then arrived upstairs, to a conference room and saw a film presentation the local Doctors/Dentists prepared with pictures of all this team has accomplished over the past years.  There is so much love and admiration and gratitude that it is difficult to put down in words.  The room consisted of all of us, the staff which includes the head and I do mean HEAD of the Government of Vietnam's medical Institute here in Hanoi and down in HCM city (Ho Chi Minh).  The group also consisted of about 5 past patients that also wanted to tell the team how their surgeries has changed their lives, physically and emotionally.  One patient even met his future wife while being a patient in the hospital last year.  His fiancee's sister also was a patient, and she visited her sister and met her now, fiance.  Anyway, this young man got up and told the team how grateful he was for "making my life better".  It was so emotional that the tears started to flow.

After the speeches of thanks and "please come back next year" (that was repeated many, many times), was the presentation of "gifts" too.  The slide show had the bios of everyone with their pictures, and then they all came up to the front and were presented with framed certificates from the government of Vietnam for thanks in all their humanitarian work they have done over the years.  Also, a beatiful crystal award to put on their mantles, from the Institute. A gift of a beautiful embroidered silk tablecloth with 12 napkins and an envelope with more thanks.  I was so proud of all these people and their contributions and so glad I met and could participate with each and every one of them.  I was not left out, as I received a beautiful bouquet of long stemmed red roses and a gift of an exquisite silk scarf (pictures below).

Lots of hugs and kisses and fond farewells were exchanged (plus the paparazzi was out in force with all the photos being taken).  We were then instructed to be back to the Institute at 6pm for our final celebration with what else, FOOD!

This experience is something I have always wanted to do, to give back and to help others.  I have waited too long to be apart, but I have done it now and really hope to continue the mission.

I plan in my next blog entry to try to describe how the experience was, in more detail.  We just have a few days left, and we will go to the Institute and give our fond farewells to the patients that are still in hospital.  I did receive a scarf from my little patient that I have grown close to and we exchanged emails and facebook addresses.  I hope to stay in contact with her for many years to come and maybe see her one day in the USA, or even on my next trip here.

Now, time for shopping!

Enjoy the pics!