Creating Smiles, Improving Lives

Austin Smiles Blog

The power went out in the hospital on Monday, producing lots of anxiety for the medical team and for the patients’ parents.   Fortunately it came back on almost immediately.

Today the power went out again about 10:30 am, but this time the hospital had to rely on generator power.  The power was out in the entire neighborhood.  Things went from bad to worse when we were informed that the generator was overheating and we could lose all power within a couple of hours.  We lost access to water later in the morning because it is pumped with electricity and power had to be conserved to maintain critical resources.

Surgeries in progress were completed without problems, but no new cases were started because of the uncertainty.  We waited until 2:00 pm, but permanent power had not been restored.  We decided at that point to leave the hospital.  As the bus was departing at 3:30 we got word that the power had been restored.  We are hopeful that we will be able to work on Wednesday.

It was oddly calm for such a stressful situation.  The Salvadoran staff and Smiles team were patient and cooperative.  The patients that did not get into the operating room today have been rescheduled for tomorrow.  We plan to start early and continue until all the cases are complete. Wednesday and Thursday will be long days, but we came here to work and plan to do what is necessary to treat all the children who are expecting an operation this week.

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1 in 700 children are born with a cleft lip or palate

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