Two missions to northern West Bank treat dozens of children

On June 12th, a 3-member team of doctors from the USA arrived in the West Bank town of Tulkarem and another 4-member international team went to Nablus to provide free treatment on dental and maxillofacial patients who otherwise would not get the care that they needed locally. The Tulkarem mission provided dental surgery on pediatric patients with special needs and included surgeons Dr. Bilal Siab from North Carolina and Dr. Sahar Alrayyas from Chicago, and anesthesiologist Dr. Paul Meyer from Iowa.

The Nablus mission was a continuation of the maxillofacial program at Rafidiah Hospital and was led by Dr. Khaled Abughazaleh from Chicago and included Dr. Imad Tamimi from Jordan, Ecuadorean surgeons Prof. Fernando Sandoval Vernmmennand his son Dr. Fernando Jose Sandoval Portilla, as well as Dr. Hussein Abu Khudair, head of anesthesia at King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan. All seven doctors have all been on past humanitarian missions to Palestine via the PCRF. The mission to the Dr. Thabet Thabet government hospital in Tulkarem is part of on ongoing program in pediatric dental surgery there to help build up the local capacity and infrastructure. Past donations of equipment in dental surgery for the hospital have helped to make it a center now for this kind of care. The mission to Rafidiah Hospital is also an ongoing program to build a long-term surgical program there and tens of thousands of dollars of medical equipment was donated and purchased through generous donations from the Palestine Humanitarian Aid Project, Scanlan International and Biohorizon.