Scripps' volunteer medical team transforms smiles and lives in Mexico

The contentious debate that characterizes many conversations about the U.S. healthcare system makes it easy to take for granted the basic medical care that is out of reach to many people living in other parts of the world.

This is not lost on San Diego-based Scripps Health, which deploys volunteer-based medical teams to fill unmet need. Scripps' Medical Response Team has provided critical aid to victims of national disasters around the world, including in Nepal and Haiti after catastrophic earthquakes in 2015 and 2010, respectively, as well as in Southern states after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Another Scripps coalition, the Mercy Outreach Surgical Team, travels to Mexico annually to provide free surgeries to thousands of children and adults to correct cleft lips, cleft palates, burn scars, crossed-eyes and a variety of other conditions.

"In the U.S., a child born with a cleft palate or cleft lip is generally treated immediately, with good follow-up care," Thomas Vecchione, MD, plastic surgeon and longtime member of the MOST volunteer medical group, told KUSI News. "But that's not the case in many parts of the world where there is a lack of treatment facilities and children who are born with birth defects go untreated."

In the U.S., about 4,440 babies are born with a cleft lip each year, and about 2,650 are born with a cleft palate, which may include a cleft lip. A cleft can usually be identified during the pregnancy with an ultrasound, according to the report. While such abnormalities are usually corrected during infancy in the U.S., surgery for cleft palates and lips is not as accessible in many other nations. In addition to repairing the appearance of a child's face, surgery to correct orofacial clefts helps improve breathing, as well as hearing, speech and language development.

MOST has provided free surgeries to people in Mexico for nearly three decades. Since 1988, it has provided corrective surgeries to more than 12,000 patients in Mexico. The surgical teams usually include more than 50 volunteers and are made up of plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and support staff.

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