Patient Stories

Kimley is a five-year old future basketball star, who entertained Team members with his hoop skills while waiting for his surgery time. Kimley was burned by an open fire, and the scar left him unable to fully extend his left arm. Surgicorps sees many burns from open fires in Bhutan and other developing countries.

After surgery and a splint on his arm, he was still able to charm Her Majesty Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk, Queen Mother, when she stopped by for a visit.

We first met Tandin Dorji two years ago when he was smiling and racing around Paro Hospital waiting for reconstructive surgery for a new nose. He had been attacked by a bobcat as an infant.

During our April 2009 Medical Mission Trip, Tandin was back to continue his reconstructive surgery. Now seven years old, he is pictured here waiting for his surgery.

During the April 2009 Medical Mission Trip to Bhutan, Surgicorps performed 62 life-change surgeries, a majority of which were for cleft lips.

2-year old Kiran, pictured here in before and after photos, was one of our patients. The team was able to repair his lip, helping him to better take nourishment, and improve his overall quality of life.

We are the brothers of Mangnezig. We are from the Masaii Tribe and our family raises cattle. Our family was herding our cattle across a stream during the monsoon. The fast water carried away one of our young cows. Mangnezig grabbed the cow by the tail to try and save it, but the cow and our brother were carried down stream. Our brother is very strong and he did not let go. When we found him, the cow was dead; both of Mangnezig’s arms were broken and most of the skin was missing from his back and legs.

My name is Nashel, I am from “Mana’s” village and I brought “Mana” to the clinic to see if the American doctors could fix her hands. Mana’s hands and face were burned very badly when the thatched roof of her family’s hut caught on fire and collapsed into the house.

10 years ago…She lurched into the public health clinic in Codo, Brazil on two grotesquely deformed legs. She was six years old and wore only underpants. Dr. Jack Demos and Dr. Vincent Silvaggio, surgeons on a medical mission to Brazil, knew immediately that they could not treat her in Codo. She would have to return home.

This irrepressible five year old was smiling and racing around the Paro hospital in Bhutan despite the fact that a wildcat had clawed off his nose when he was seven months old. He lives with his parents who tend a herd of 100 yak. Home is a tent in the Himalayas at 11,000 feet elevation. One day, after giving Tandin a bath, his mother left him in the tent while she went out to wash some clothes. A wildcat the size of a large dog crept in and mauled the baby. Returning to the tent, his mother discovered what had happened, bundled up Tandin and, along with her husband, made the three day trip by horseback to the Thimphu Hospital in the capital city where the baby was given emergency care.