Posted: 9/6/05
6 nurses from Burnsville will assist in quality-of-life surgeries that have been donated to Chinese orphans
by John Sucansky
Thisweek Newspapers
What promises to be an emotional mission will also be one during which no one can show any emotion.
Six nurses from Burnsvilleís Fairview Ridges Hospital will be traveling to China to assist surgeons from around the United States in operations to fix children with cleft palates and lips at an orphanage.
Eighty medical personnel will be traveling in two teams for the mission to Luo Yang in Henan Province. The trip was made possible by an organization called Love Without Boundaries.
Karen Maunu of Lakeville, one of the co-directors of the medical trip with Love Without Boundaries, said the current mission is the second of such trips, but the first with help traveling from Dakota County.
Last year, 15 medical personnel traveled to China and completed 53 surgeries. This yearís missions have planned 168 lip surgeries and 37 palate surgeries.
Maunu, who has adopted two girls from China, became involved in the organization after recently visiting an orphanage in China.
ìIt just made me want to help,î she said after seeing the conditions there.
She met Love Without Boundaries founders before it existed and began raising money with them to help fund surgery for children who needed it.
She explained that in China, the concept of ìfaceî is very important. Chinese are careful about what emotions they show in public, and disfigurement like cleft lips and palates is considered shameful.
Children who grow up with this disfigurement often lead lesser lives because it affects their speech and their physical acceptance in society.
Joanne Caldwell, a nurse from Fairview Ridges traveling on the mission, said cleft palates and their corrective surgeries are rare at the Burnsville hospital because theyíre mostly done at Gillette Childrenís Hospital.
She said no one knows why the disfigurement occurs or why it is so prevalent in China.
It leads to a lot of social problems and crowded orphanages. She said girls in general are abandoned in great numbers in China, but boys are only abandoned if theyíre considered ìflawed.î
The orphanage the two teams will be traveling to has 800 children ranging in age from infants to teenagers. It also has a $2.6 million addition with an operating room suite donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The doctors and nurses traveling from the U.S. will conduct the surgeries at the orphanage to reduce expenses.
Maunu, who has been supporting Love Without Boundaries before its inception, joined full time this spring, working eight hours a day on the trips. Her role has been to address the staffís needs and plan the trips. Her co-director, Heidi Reitz of Sartell, Minn., is in charge of getting the supplies and equipment the medical staff will need.
The nurses have been working on supplies as well. The nurses have secured donations of a prophylactic drug to take in case any accidents happen with needles during the surgery and follow up care. Lorrie Kaiser, the administrative nursing supervisor from Fairview Ridges, explained that HIV is very prevalent in China.
The nurses will protect themselves and their patients, but in the event of an accident, they want to be prepared.
After asking a sales representative of one of the hospitalís drug suppliers, the nurses received 90 Permabond pens as a donation. The pens apply a super glue to skin that is used in place of sutures during surgery. Theyíre very expensive but half of what the trip will need was donated.
Sue Pierzynowski, one of the missionís nurses said, ìI asked for a box of gloves and I got a case.î
All of the nurses from Burnsville are excited about the trip, and not too concerned about working with new doctors. Theyíre more nervous about adjusting their behavior to Chinese norms than anything else.
Nancy McDermitt, a nurse from Burnsville, said she recently vacationed in China in 2002 and was saddened by the living conditions of many people in the Yangtze River valley.
ìPeople were crawling on their hands and knees begging,î she said as tears rolled down her cheek. ìI had said to myself, if I could ever go back and help I would.î
The experience, she said, stirred her passion to return.
She said the emotion she felt while telling the story would have to be kept in check while in China, but sheís thankful for the opportunity to make a difference.
In order to offset travel costs, Kaiser organized fund raising and donations from the hospital.
The nurses, in addition to giving up their vacation time and pay at the hospital, are also paying for their own expenses to travel on the mission.
Team one leaves Sept. 8 and includes Martha (Paitl) Huschka. This mission will overlap with team two and returns Sept. 17. Team two leaves Sept. 15 and includes Mary Kay Boell, Pierzynowski, Joyce Haggerty, McDermitt, and Caldwell. They will return Sept. 24.
For more information about Love Without Boundaries or to donate to this 501(c)3 organization, visit the Web site www.lovewithoutboundaries.com, or send checks payable to Love Without Boundaries to 306 S. Bryant, Suite C, PMB 145, Edmond, OK 73034
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