With Deyson Malave, we started our week by improving the cases of cleft lip and palate patients. He represents all the children from body nearby and distant towns around Guayaquil.
Emotions ran high as parents reacted to the moment they handed over their child to our volunteer staff, who were assisted by local nurses in preparing for surgery in the operating room. This procedure will bring stability to their lives and those of their loved ones.
Most of the children feel a mix of nervousness and happiness before their surgery, as the difficult environmental conditions they have endured never allowed them to imagine even a glimpse of hope. In contrast, the parents are the ones who express happiness, as they can finally envision the future they have long desired.
Alliance for Smiles’ medical volunteers and the children’s hospital staff gathered to discuss and encourage the importance of this collaboration between them. Our members will provide them with a unique experience with medical professionals from different backgrounds, who will also create a learning environment. We count on the help of the local hospital residents, who do not have easy access to specialized cleft lip and palate surgery training.
Despite the limitations of the language barrier, the Fundacion and hospital made sure to also bring experienced translators to help both teams better understand each other.
Deyson Dario Malave Espinoza held by his mom while in the pre-surgery waiting room 
A Children's Hospital nurse delivers Wilinton Figueroa 
AfS Anesthesiologist, Roberto Santillian, indicates and explains his process for putting to sleep a child to a local resident 
Darrell Daugherty gives out instructions and pointers to all medical professionals, including AfS volunteers and local staff
A Meaningful Transition From Restoring Smiles to Giving a Brave Girl the Chance to Regain Mobility in One of Her Hands
When Sofia was a year and a half old, she experienced a terrible accident that no child should ever go through at such an early stage of life. She accidentally fell into a fireplace, resulting in the complete loss of functionality in both hands. The damage was so immense that she lost all of her fingertips except for her thumb. In addition, both hands became compressed into a mitten-like shape. This medical condition, a deformity of the hands, occurs when fingers fuse due to severe scarring, which occurred after multiple surgical attempts to ease her pain and preserve as much of her hands as possible.
The children’s hospital directly reached out to our volunteer surgeon, Ahmed Gad. He went back and forth, gathering enough information before giving pre-approval to proceed with an approach for at least one of her hands. Despite the limitations in resources within the city and the hospital, Dr. Ahmed Gad developed a plan that would allow Sofia’s left hand to decompress and initiate a series of procedures aimed at progressively transforming her life.
Dr. Ahmed Gad and the local medical team operate on Sofia's left hand 
Surgeries to date: 3 palate, 2 lips, 1 other
Thank you to our partners Fundacion El Cielo Para Los Ninos de Ecuador and the Rotary Club of San Francisco for making this possible!