First Child Helped

Very early in the process of building Medical Missions for Children, Frank and Peg Brady traveled to Panama City to nurture the organization's first hospital relationship. There they met Yordano, an 11-year-old boy from rural Panama born with a cranial deformity resulting in mild retardation, only one eye, and difficulty in swallowing. He had a shunt placed in his brain at birth.

Yordano comes from a family of six. His father is a painter and his mother is a seamstress. He has an 18-year-old brother, a 5-year-old brother and a healthy twin brother.

Yordano's medical needs confirmed for the couple that Medical Missions for Children would fill an important gap – and he soon became the catalyst to move the organization forward.

Yordano was the poster child for handicapped children in Panama in 2000. He became the first child to use the MMC Telemedicine & Teaching Network in November 2000. He was examined by doctors at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in New Jersey, and it was determined he could be helped. Using an interactive telemedicine model to collect measurements, an exact computer model of his head was reproduced. The skull was reshaped with computer imaging to correct the problems. The computer then helped the doctors design implants of titanium and harvested bone. The next step was to have a physical model made to confirm that all the parts fit and to provide the surgical team with a planning tool.

Although Yordano's doctors in Panama collaborated and assisted in the preparation, it was determined that the operation should be conducted at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital. Yordano and his mother, Lury, came to the United States and stayed with the Brady family. In November 2001, Drs. Ephros, Hall and Krieger of St. Joseph's performed a 10-hour Phase I operation, changing the shape of Yordano's skull and creating an eye socket for a prosthetic eye. In Phase II, which was scheduled for the summer of 2002, a reconfigured jaw was added to allow Yordano a greater ability to chew.

At the conclusion of the operation, the doctors used utilized MMC's Telemedicine & Teaching Network to review the entire procedure with approximately 50 physicians in Panama as a "forum for learning."