Hospital de la Familia

Since 1983, Dr. William Jervis has done voluntary and Reconstructive Surgery in numerous trips to Guatemala, and the Philippines.

He is organizing, as team leader, this tenth trip to Guatemala to do reconstructive surgery, primarily for cleft lip and palate, and burn reconstruction, at Hospital de la Familia in the Guatemalan highland, in November 1998. This team will consist of approximately 30 persons, including plastic surgeons, opthalmologists, pediatricians, general surgeons, gynecologists, anesthesiologists , nurses and technicians.

He also serves on the Board of the foundation that built and maintains the hospital.

* Dr Jervis wrote the following article for the Hospital de la Familia Foundation

"During my first visit to Hospital de la Famila at Nuevo Progreso, 20-year-old- Carmelino Gonzales arrived wearing a bandana over his face. I suspect that was to keep flies away from his mouth rather than cover the complete cleft of his lip and palate."

"Guatemalans accept these deformities as a way of life and they commonly are uncorrected, particularly in rural areas. But, of course, those bearing these unfortunate disfiguring burdens carry their stigma wherever they go.
Carmelino, a farm worker, had his severely cleft lip and palate repaired by us in a three and a half hour procedure. He woke up not only with at new face, but with a palate that should enable him to develop at least intelligible speech."

"Although we couldn't get Carmelino to speak much, when he looked in the mirror he smiled with obvious pride at his transformed image. He was ready to face the world with his new face, no longer hidden behind a bandana."

" One of our visiting medical teams recently repaired a man's grievous head would. A machete had cut through his nose like a sliced cantaloupe, so he was a truly frightening sight. The team studied this and set about restoring his nose with a strip of skin from his forehead. They molded this to form his nostrils and stitched it in place."

"He left the hospital grinning from ear-to-ear. Except for stitches his face was back to normal and you knew he felt handsome again."

"In the past 20 years our visiting teams have performed more than 2,100 reconstructive surgeries that our grateful Guatemalan patients, their families and friends consider miraculous."

Carmelino Gonzales

Hospital De Lafamila

Guatemala Trip 1998
Dr. Jervis, and Dr. Rhoderman
feeding the babies

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