Local charity workers cure birth defects in Peru

When most of us think of vacation, we think of relaxing, of taking a break from working. Maybe a trip to the tropics or a fun weekend skiing.

But for some people, vacation is an opportunity to give and help others, Rick Kupchella is one of those people. What follows is his account of his summer vacation.

You don't have to step too far into a place like Lima, Peru to understand the need here is different. The bar for basic healthcare is lower and the need for any healthcare is written, literally, on the face of so many children.

The people here are too poor to access a health system most Americans wouldn't want to begin with.

Kim Valentini came upon this need, not as a doctor or a diplomat, but as a mom.

"You're a dad, I'm a mom. We all want the best things for our kids and when you see these people who cannot provide for their kids, it's heart breaking," said Valentini.

The children she?s referring to are born with genetic deformities. The lips on their mouths are interrupted. There is a gaping hole where the roof of their mouth should be. It's a terrible disfigurement by any measure.

In some cases, when infants have deformed mouths, eating, suckling, is impossible and that can prove deadly.

"When you go through this, just walking around and looking, does it get any easier?" I asked Kim? "No, I mean it's heart warming. It never gets easier. "

Kim added, "You realize you have an opportunity to change the life of a child who will never go to school, never have a boyfriend, or a girlfriend. You don't get to do it once, you do it 150 times here. I think that's pretty powerful."

Kim, who made a name for herself as Manager of Tourism, in the launch of the Mall of America, has left the "corporate world" altogether. The group she's founded is now led by some of the top medical people in this state.

But here, among the children in places like Peru, their work is rooted in real human need.

Take for instance a boy name Josue. Josue was born into the kind of shanty town you see featured in late-night infomercials seeking the 'sponsorship' of a child.

Josue's family drove hours everyday for nearly two weeks just to be sure they didn't miss the visit by the medical team.

Dr. Marie Christiansen is a medical volunteer who explained what Josue is up against. "He has a complete cleft of the right lip and palate. He's a good size. He's four months and a great age."

"He'll be able to eat better and his lip repair will be important for speech. We tend to see what he's going to look like when repaired. He's got all the parts. We just have to put them together," said an optimistic Dr. Christiansen.

Not every child here will be as lucky as Josue.

Some of the cases will be too extreme.

Sometimes, doctors make arrangements to bring more complicated cases back to the states. And sometimes they cannot.

There's one little girl with a cleft lip that could be fixed were it not for the far more serious heart problem doctors say she's facing. Dr. Randall Flick said, "You can see she's blue all the time. See, her fingers are blue. She has only three-quarters of the oxygen in her blood that you or I have."

A whole in her heart keeps her weaker than she should be. She's more frail that she should be. She might live for several years with this condition. But ultimately, she will either have to be flown back to the states, or a larger team of doctors will have to be flown in here to help her.

Her mother walked for a day, took a bus for another 16 hours, and had moved into a city shelter, waiting for this team of surgeons to help her very sick child.

She will have to wait again.

As difficult as it is to not be able to help a child, this team stays focused on fixing the more than 100 children they can.

Upon learning that Josue will be among the lucky ones to receive surgery here, his family rushes him to church. They called it a formal thank you to God for the medical team from Minnesota.

Surden Babovich shows up at the hospital door to pick up Josue on his own.

The surgery is about to begin. The young child's cries are muffled as anesthesiologists cover his mouth with the gas to put him under.

Josue is the picture of vulnerability.

In just over an hour, and for a cost of just $500 this child's fate is changed forever. "It went really good. As we say 'by the book'," said the surgeon.

Josue is one of 112 kids undergoing surgery here in five days.

The charity pays the cost to transport the medical team.

But every person here is a volunteer.

Kathy Fink is a nurse who's helped countless kids here, but she said it was the reaction of one senior citizen she remembers most of all.

"She'd walked around her whole life with her hand over her mouth. She didn't want anyone to see her lip. It was the first time when we corrected the lip that she could smile," Kathy recalled with tears in her eyes.

Kathy, like so many others here, keeps coming back again and again.

"I don't cry easily", said Dr. Allen Van Beek, "but I'll tell you, when you walk away from that group of kids and there'll be kids on the list to get done we call them number one priorities and they will not get done. And when you walk through the group of parents with tears in their eyes it will leave you speechless and with a spear in your heart you never get over. Every time I go away I'm sad. And then I get inspired again because I know I'm coming back."

By Rick Kupchella, KARE 11 News

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