MICHAEL BONFIGLI PHOTOGRAPHER

Vietnam: Mission to Vietnam

In March 2008 I followed a medical mission that provided plastic surgery to children in need in Vietnam. The medical mission is part of an ongoing medical outreach program which surgeons from the United States (a partnership between the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center). Their goal is to train local physicials in Vietnam and perform much needed plastic surgery on a population that otherwise has limited access to this type of medical care. The surgeries occurred at the National Hospital of Pediatrics in Hanoi after a truly painstaking selection process in which there were more children in need of surgery than available slots. The team performed procedures ranging from craniofacial surgery to surgery on acquired deformities from trauma and burns.