Pa Li Dan with her Chinese and American health care team.

Pa Li Dan is a pretty 17-year-old Uygher girl from Xinjiang province in far west China. When she was only 2 years old she contracted a disease that left her face disfigured and flat. As a result, she became afraid to go out and face the stares and comments. For as long as she could remember she wanted to have a nose like everyone else. Her moment came when the Medical Team arrived. Her surgery took a long 4 hours because Dr. Hart had to take bone from her rib and cartilage from other locations to fill up the vacancy caused by the disease. After surgery, she looked at herself in the mirror and saw her new face and nose, and smiled, saying, “Oh, please thank the doctor for me!”

In China and many other countries, people with any kind of deformity or handicap carry a lot of shame as they face the endless stares and mindless questions. They are viewed as “strange.” For children who are abandoned because of that, the deepest wound is in their heart. They are the ones most needing help!

Through the efforts of CHI Medical Team 2000, 100 such children received much-needed surgery to correct their deformities or medical problems. Some can now walk, and they never could before. Others can now smile without the disfigurement of a cleft lip The occupational therapist taught classes to orphanage workers on ways to help brain damaged or mentally delayed children gain daily living skills. The workers were from 6–8 orphanages that serve at least 60 children. A dental team from a Chinese hospital checked the teeth of 150 children in Urumuqi orphanage, most of whom had never had a dental check up!

It seems simple when I write it down on paper, but it was anything but simple. It was a huge challenge from preparation to completion, but oh so very fulfilling.

When we entered customs in Beijing, our seven big trunks full of medical items caught the eyes of the custom officers immediately. They required us to open one and explain what they were. We showed them the approval of the medical project from the local Ministry of Health, and they were pleased. But, still, we were told legally, we couldn’t take more than our personal use of medical supplies into the country without paying customs, but they would give us an exception this time!

The plastic surgery team will never forget the first surgery they did in Nanchang Children’s Hospital. There were some complications, and it had gotten dark outside, when suddenly, the electricity went out! Our coordinator Vivian immediately called Mr. Hu, the hospital coordinator for our project. He came running with the electrician and the Chinese anesthetist. They got the generator working, and the problem was solved. The little boy was safe after a couple of hours, but not before creating a great nervous strain on everyone! Later that night, the Chinese hospital director and doctors came to encourage our American team to continue and said there would be Chinese staff in every surgery to help prevent anything from happening again. They were noble and kind, and I felt the warmth between the two teams begin to be born that moment. The language barrier was gone, only the love and care and the determination to help those children that was so very obvious and strong.

Families and friends of CHI donated $126,000 for Medical Team 2000, and with CHI matching funds, we have over $100,000 still to be used. The actual cost for Medical Team 2000 doing the 100 surgeries so far is a little over $100,000. There were children who couldn’t have surgery at the time because of a fever or other problem, and we could not allow them to miss their chance.

We were told that after we left, the local media continued the coverage of the project for weeks. As a result, we have been asked by other orphanages to help their children as well. So we are carrying the medical team project into year 2001 and have already asked our Chinese hospital partners to continue the surgeries. Our aim is to help at least 100 more children! We are very proud to say that Project Medical team will continue in 2001.

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