Rotarian Lends Hand in Surgeries For Guatemalan Children With Facial Deformities

BROOMALL–In , Paul Quintavalla is the Broomall Rotary Club's president and works in marketing but in Retalhuleu, Guatemala, for 12 days, he was an assistant in the operating room cleaning and sterilizing medical instruments for surgeries on children with facial deformities–particularly cleft lip and palate.

With the backing of the Broomall, Newtown Square and Media Rotary Clubs, and the Rotary District 7450, Quintavalla flew to Guatemala with a team of 29 from the Rotaplast International, Inc.–an organization affiliated with the International Rotary Club that provides cleft lip and palate surgery to children in countries where they are unable to afford or receive the medical treatment.

The Mission

The Broomall and Newtown Square Rotary Clubs have supported 12 missions in recent years, including the one just completed in Guatemala. In Guatemala, Quintavalla and the Rotaplast team provided plastic surgery for 106 children, in which 10 required multiple surgeries.

The team of 29 consisted of 19 medical personnel from across the country, and as far as the Czech Republic, including plastic surgeons, anesthesiologists, a pediatrician, dentist, speech therapist and nurses.

On the first day of registration, Quintavalla recalls the medical team arriving at the hospital compound, enclosed by an 8-foot wall and security guards with guns, to see a line of about 230 children and parents waiting to be seen or operated on.

"We met one woman who came with their daughter and they traveled for two days by bus just to have us see her daughter. They only had $12 on them and that was all their savings," recalled Quintavalla.

The 10 Rotarian volunteers had raised funds for the mission and were there to run the "behind-the-scenes" aspects of the project, including arranging transportation, accommodations and meals. However, their primary focus was coordinating medical records and medical equipment and supplies while managing the movement and care of parents and children.

Other Rotarians in clubs across the country had sewn and donated child size quilts. Every child who underwent surgery left the hospital with a colorful quilt...made in America.

The Takeaway

Despite the grueling hours, where many volunteers usually suffer exhaustion, depression or food poisoning, Quintavalla said everyone was positive and helped support each other.

"It's a lot of hard work. But the medical volunteers are really the heroes," shared Quintavalla. "They have taken the time to do what they don't have to do by helping these children. The camaraderie around the group and the people there is really amazing. You really feel like a member of their family and how many times can you experience that in your life?"

Though this wasn't Quintavalla's first time doing mission work with Rotaplast, Quintavalla still remembers the first time when he was on a mission in China working on the surgeries there. On that particular mission, his job was bringing the child back to their parents after surgery. And though he has worked as an EMT before, the kids had "scared" him.

"My first impression with these children was that they don't seem to notice they have a horrible deformity and they don't know that because they're just children and their parents love them," said Quintavalla. "In the back of my mind, I was sheepish and concerned about their appearance but they weren't like that–they're just kids."

What's his motivation to go on these mission trips with Rotaplast? "Now, those children get fixed. They can get married and smile at somebody."

And it's not to say that Quintavalla's main philosophy of helping out on these mission trips is to "give back" or "pay back." No, it's simply "to do the right thing."

"There are a lot of rewards that aren't monetary. Doing good things is a reward in itself."