As a dental student and OMS resident, some of Dr. Leena Zurayk’s most gratifying moments occurred while working as a local volunteer providing care to those without healthcare access.
So when Dr. Austin Gaal, her colleague at Harborview Medical Center, offered an invitation to travel to Bolivia with Healing the Children, Dr. Zurayk recognized her next-level service opportunity. The combination of community service and immersive instruction in cleft repair from internationally renowned surgeons felt like the opportunity of a lifetime – one that would have been out of reach if not for a Global Initiative for Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) stipend from the OMS Foundation. The $2,500 GIVE stipend removed the financial hurdles of international travel, allowing Dr. Zurayk to focus on providing care to a community in need.
She and Dr. Gaal joined a team of surgeons, nurses, speech and language pathologists and anesthesiologists – led by Emory University OMS Chair Dr. Steven Roser – in Santa Cruz for a fast-paced week in January. Some 130 patients were triaged on Day 1. The team completed 74 procedures in five days, with Bolivian oral surgeons working alongside the visiting OMSs while multiple local medical students observed.
Outside of the OR, the team’s surgeons and anesthesiologists presented lectures on cleft care and pediatric anesthesiology to the local medical students, residents and internists.
Dr. Zurayk credits a local surgeon, Dr. Gissa Nunez Balderrama, with teaching her how to repair a cleft palate. By week’s end, she was versed in unilateral and bilateral cleft lip repair, lip adhesion and cleft palate repair. She was equally inspired by Dr. Balderrama’s commitment to establish – with support from Healing the Children, Rotary International and the local medical community – a comprehensive cleft care center in Santa Cruz.
“My experience with Healing the Children showed me how surgical outreach programs confront the problems of poverty, healthcare personnel shortages and large patient populations,” she said. “I am grateful to the OMS Foundation for the opportunity to expand my surgical skills and for inspiring me to look for ways to give back to my local and international communities.”