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Sight, Sound and Smile Mission

Bridging Cultural Divides through the Army’s Sight, Sound and Smile Medical Mission

Army surgeons from Hawaii treat patients and train physicians in Bangladesh

A surgical team from Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii knows first hand the impact their specialized medical skills can make on the lives of people in need. In August, a six-member surgical team ventured to Bogra, Bangladesh, as part of the Sight, Sound, and Smile mission to care for patients and train Bangladeshi Army physicians to perform specialized surgeries to correct cleft lip and palate deformities, cataracts and chronic ear disease. While there, the Tripler team performed surgery on 50 adults and children at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Bogra.

 


Bangladesh, with nearly 150 million people, is one of the most densely populated and poorest countries in the world. Bangladeshi residents live mainly in rural areas, and while there is a national health care system in place, many individuals have difficulty accessing medical services. In developed countries, diseases such as cataracts and chronic ear disease are typically treated shortly after diagnosis. However, in less developed countries like Bangladesh these diseases can go untreated due to lack of access to medical care.  Sadly, many Bangladeshi children born with a cleft lip and palate deformities face challenges in their lives including not being able to attend school, work or get married. To these patients, corrective surgery is truly life-changing.

Bogra, located in Northern Bangladesh with a population of 285,000, was chosen for this mission because of the city’s extreme poverty. Patients were prescreened at one of the Bogra rural health clinics. To facilitate the training aspect of the mission, the Army surgical team from Tripler supplied all of the needed surgical equipment and supplies. They worked with the Bangladeshi Army physicians to complete the operations who then provided follow-up care to the patients.

This was the second mission team to travel to Bangladesh in as many years. The team consisted of  Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Klem, chief of head and neck oncologic surgery at Tripler Medical Center; Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Cable, chief of pediatric otolaryngology; Major Brett Nelson, ophthalmologist; Captain Marc Herr, resident otolaryngolist; and surgical technicians Sergeant Melissa Aschenbrenner and Specialist Andrea Miller.

The Sight, Sound, and Smile missions were funded by the “Peace Through Healthcare Initiative,” a Congressional program designed to assist with humanitarian medical care, provide additional learning opportunities for U.S. medical staff and train non-U.S. physicians.  Additional Sight, Sound, and Smile teams from Tripler have traveled to Malaysia and Cambodia, and could expand to other Pacific Rim countries in the future.