A James Cook University surgeon is off to the Philippines to help provide life-changing operations to people in the Southeast Asian nation.
Justin Curtin is Associate Professor in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at JCU. He joins an international team of anaesthesiologists, paediatricians, nurses and allied medical staff working under the banner of the Philippine and American Group of Educators and Surgeons (PAGES).
Dr Curtin said PAGES has been organising these charitable missions for 36 years and this will be his 27th mission to the Philippines.
"Our work focuses on surgical repair of facial clefts for under-privileged children who would not otherwise receive health care. Without these surgeries, many of these children are ostracised because of their appearance or cannot get work.
"We also have an ongoing JCU-led research project running alongside the surgical programme in search of the underlying cause of this birth defect," said Dr Curtin.
He said typically the yearly missions are self-funded by the medical volunteers who must also supply much of their own equipment.
"However, this year Ramsay Health Care in Cairns is donating items used in these surgical operations for which we are very grateful. Hopefully, we can continue this collaboration," said Dr Curtin.
Ramsay Health Care is supplying medical consumables – gauze, sterile strips, scalpel blades, iodine, pharmaceutical equipment and medicines – enough for 30 surgeries.
"Although our focus is on children, I have also corrected the cleft lip of a 56-year-old rice farmer whose mother had decided it was time he got married – strangely, despite a great surgical result, he wasn't so happy!" said Dr Curtin.
This year's mission will run from January 30 to February 8 and will be based at the Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Hospital in the city of Iba, in Zambales province.
