West Suburban Surgeon Travels Miles to Bring Smiles to Impoverished Children in Ecuador

For many Chicago-area residents, the month of March means Spring Break and vacations to exciting warm-weather destinations.  For Dr. Tal Raine, a respected plastic surgeon with Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in Hinsdale and Naperville, this past March included a trip of a much different kind.

Dr. Raine and a volunteer medical team of 14 doctors, nurses and lay staff from Illinois traveled to the Leon Becerra Children’s Hospital in Guayaquil, Ecuador to treat cleft lips, palates and burn deformities, as well as tumor diseases of impoverished children in the region. The medical work was the latest effort in 14 years of volunteer work that has served over 1,000 children for Raine and his colleagues to countries around the world that is provided at no cost to patients or their families. 

“These types of missions are most satisfying because they are my work in the purest sense,” said Dr. Raine.  “To reach out beyond our borders, with no ulterior motive, is something special I cherish.  For me, it is a life-changing experience.”

During the week-long trip, Dr. Raine and the team performed 45 surgeries that included removing children’s benign tumors, repairing cleft lips and pallets, and preventing a teenage burn victim from suffocating.  They worked daily from 6:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and occupied three of the five operating rooms alongside staffers at the hospital, allowing them to compare techniques, exchange ideas, and embrace each other’s cultures.

The incidence of oral deformities in South America is comparable to that of the United States.  However, many times poorer populations in South America are unable to get the treatment they need.  In addition to their effect on a child’s appearance, deformed lips and pallets carry a debilitating social stigma and can affect nutritional and speech development.

Costing around $20,000 plus donated medical supplies, missions are an expensive undertaking.  While physicians often pay their own airfare, other medical and lay staffers rely on donations.

That’s why Dr. Raine established Rainedrops Inc., a nonprofit organization with the goal of helping defray costs such as airfare, hotel and meals for participants of each mission.  The organization and its board of directors hope to boost donations before trips to Honduras in fall 2006 and Trinidad in spring 2007.  Rainedrops Inc. works with similar organizations at the Carle Clinic at the University of Illinois and Operation Rainbow in Oakland, California. 

“In all the mission trips I’ve participated in, and throughout all the different cultures I’ve experienced, one thing remains the same,” commented Dr. Raine.  “Parents are willing to travel great distances and make enormous sacrifices for their children.  As a parent myself, I want to do everything I can to help them.”

With offices in Hinsdale and Naperville, Aesthetic Plastic Surgery is a state of the art plastic surgery facility with two fully accredited operating room suites and a recovery area that provides a private atmosphere for individualized care.  For more information visit us at www.faceandbodychicago.com. To find out more about Raindrops, Inc and how you can help contact us at (630) 794-0700.