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Winchester Hospital Plastic Surgeon Frank Virnelli, MD, Completes 20th Volunteer Mission to Improve Smiles and Lives
Winchester, Mass. — Winchester Hospital plastic surgeon Frank Virnelli, MD, recently returned from an 11-day trip to Mali, Africa, marking his 20th volunteer mission to surgically repair cleft lip deformities in children and adults.
A resident of Winchester, Dr. Virnelli first became interested in volunteering his services while he was a plastic surgery resident in 1971. He looked into a one-year plastic surgery fellowship that served rural areas of Kenya, but the program didn’t accept physicians with children.
Seven years later, Dr. Virnelli made his first volunteer trip to Honduras, working with Boston University School of Medicine’s chief resident in plastic surgery to repair cleft deformities and perform reconstructive surgery for a variety of challenging problems. He returned two years later with another chief resident and saw many of the patients from the first trip, some of whom required cleft palate repair after having their lips repaired on his first trip. Dr. Virnelli has subsequently performed volunteer work with organizations in Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.
“I’ve done repairs of some adults with unrepaired cleft lips and palates who have been accepted as respected members of their communities because the deformities are believed to be the will of God,” said Dr. Virnelli, who has been affiliated with Winchester Hospital since 1971. “But I also met an 8-year-old boy in the Dominican Republic who couldn’t go to school because he was constantly fighting with boys who taunted him about his cleft lip deformity.”
Dr. Virnelli’s recent volunteer mission in Mali was with the Global Smile Foundation, whose mission is to alleviate the suffering of underserved patients born with facial congenital deformities. He was part of a 20-member team which included three other surgeons, three anesthesiologists, a pediatric dentist, a speech therapist, operating room and recovery room nurses, and a variety of administrative and support personnel.
While similar patients are operated on within their first year of life in the United States, according to Dr. Virnelli, those in developing countries often never have access to the medical intervention that is required for them to have a normal appearance as well as the ability to eat and drink properly and develop normal speech.
The team worked with many Malian volunteers to provide care to as many patients as possible in the time available. They performed more than 50 operations in five operating days, many with IV sedation and local anesthesia because they had access to only one general anesthesia machine that the Global Smile Foundation had sent to Mali the previous year.
“There’s nothing more satisfying in plastic surgery than cleft lip repair. You can turn someone’s life around with a single procedure,” Dr. Virnelli said. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to continue making these trips for many years to come.”
Dr. Virnelli practices at Plastic Surgery of Winchester. To contact him, call (781) 729-0947.
About Winchester Hospital
Winchester Hospital is the first community hospital in Massachusetts to earn Magnet recognition, the American Nurses Association’s highest honor for nursing excellence. As the northwest suburban Boston area’s leading provider of comprehensive health care services, the 229-bed facility provides care in general, bariatric and vascular surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, cardiology, pulmonary medicine, oncology, gastroenterology, rehabilitation, radiation oncology, pain management, obstetrics/gynecology and a Level IIB Special Care Nursery. Winchester Hospital has clinical affiliations with several nationally recognized hospitals in the region, including Children’s Hospital Boston, Tufts Medical Center and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. To learn more, visit www.winchesterhospital.org. |
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