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Mindray supports Operation Smile in Colombia to transform the lives of children with cleft lip and palate

2024-03-05

Operation Smile
ESG

Montería, Colombia - Between February 28th and March 2nd, Operation Smile Colombia teamed up with Mindray to carry out a charity surgical program at the Integral Medicine University Clinic (CUMI) in Montería, Colombia. The initiative aimed to provide assessment and surgeries to children and young people with cleft lip and/or palate conditions from the department of Córdoba.

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During the program, around 70 patients received assessment, with approximately 40 of them undergoing surgery. A team of over 40 specialists and volunteers from Operation Smile Colombia, including experts in plastic surgery, anesthesiology, nursing, psychology, biomedical engineering, and speech therapy, provided care to the patients.

 

Mindray made a donation of medical devices valued at approximately USD $117,000 to Operation Smile. The donation included high-acuity patient monitors, an anesthesia system, a hydraulic operating table, an integrated 4-in-1 defibrillator, and other cutting-edge devices. This donation will help establish a new operating room dedicated to cleft surgeries.

According to Operation Smile Colombia, cleft lip and/or palate is a craniofacial malformation characterized by a discontinuity between the tissues of the lip, hard palate, and soft palate. It occurs when the facial structures of a fetus have not fully closed. Cleft lip and palate have been corrected through a series of surgeries that have restored proper function and have required multidisciplinary treatment to improve speech and ensure adequate nutrition for better development.

 

In 2024, Operation Smile will celebrate 30 years of work in Colombia, benefiting over 1,200 children and young people annually. Mindray's donation is expected to directly and indirectly support more than 23,000 individuals in the country over the next 10 years.

For approximately 20 years, Operation Smile has been providing care to people with cleft lip and/or palate in Montería. Now, we have been taking a step towards a more sustainable way of offering continuous surgeries for people with this condition in the department of Córdoba and its surroundings. Having a surgery room equipped with cutting-edge technology available to offer this continuous care has marked a milestone in our mission to break down the barriers to surgical care access for all people who have required it, regardless of their origin or circumstances.

 

Marcela Tamayo

Executive Director of Operation Smile Colombia

Looking into the future, through the provision of essential equipment, comprehensive education programs, and leveraging technological advancements, our partnership will become a catalyst driving us toward our ambitious objective: delivering safe surgical care to 1 million people by 2030.

 

Benedetta Spinola Martini

Senior Vice President Strategy & Global Development at Operation Smile

The main focus of our alliance with Operation Smile Colombia and Operation Smile globally has been to generate a positive impact on patients and their families in Latin America and other regions worldwide, actions through which we have restored their smiles. Our mission has been to improve healthcare by optimizing and distributing medical technologies worldwide to provide better care to more people, and this alliance has allowed us to pursue that goal.

 

Roger Jia

General Manager of Mindray LatAm region