CCPF 2011.pdf - Children of China Pediatrics Foundation

CHILDREN OF CHINA PEDIATRICS FOUNDATION
Rockefeller Center Station, P.O. Box 5594, New York, NY 10185-5594
HOPING for Surgery
Forty children arrived in Chengdu hoping to be candidates for surgery by
the CCPF team. Wang Yating, a nine-month-old girl was our first patient.
Dr. Samuel Rhee, plastic surgeon, easily repaired her cleft lip and she left
the hospital with a beautiful new smile.
Lele, a healthy ten-year old girl with a midline
cleft, was not as fortunate this trip. A midline cleft is a congenital abnormality
where the child’s nose does not properly form. In Lele’s case, her
condition had been corrected in a prior surgery, but her constructed nose
has been growing at a rate out of proportion to the rest of her body. Dr. Rhee
quickly concluded that he didn’t have enough information to perform Lele’s
procedure without a CT scan, which wasn’t available at the Chengdu hospital.
CCPF’s plastic surgery team will arrange for Lele to have a CT scan
in China at another facility prior to our return trip to Chengdu in the spring
of 2012. We look forward to reporting on a successful outcome for Lele.
Your Donation Can Change A Life
Each medical mission sends a team of medical professionals to China. Joining forces with surgeons
and nurses from our host hospitals in China, our medical missions transform the lives of
orphaned children with disabling conditions.
Your donation of:
$2500 allows three children to receive care
$1000 covers the costs for one surgery
$500 provides surgical supplies for one child
$250 allows for anesthetics for one procedure
$100 supplies antibiotics
$75 provides intravenous fluid
$50 pays for casting supplies
$25 provides wound dressing supplies
Send your donation to: Children of China Pediatrics Foundation
Rockefeller Center Station
P.O. Box 5594
New York, NY 10185-5594
Or donate on-line with your credit card at www.chinapediatrics.org
212-248-7561 info@chinapediatrics.org
Honorary Executive Committee
I.M. Pei
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III
Connie Chung
Gerald D. Hines
John McEnroe
Patty Smyth McEnroe
Board of Directors
Gena Palumbo - President
Eda Chao, MD
John Connor, MD
Elizabeth Corsini
Cynthia P. Gardner
Hong Haiyang
Joshua Hyman, MD
Philip LaRussa, MD
David O'Brien
Michele Prenoveau
Michelle Tong
Shirley Wise
Medical Advisory Board
David Roye, Jr., MD, Medical
Director
Jeffrey Ascherman, MD
John Connor, MD, Associate
Medical Director
Frank Cordasco, MD
Gary Edlestein, MD
Carmela Grande, RN
Joshua Hyman, MD, Associate
Medical Director
Jillian Killpatrick, RN
Philip LaRussa, MD
Leila Pang, MD
Eric Rose, MD
John Schullinger, MD
Lena Sun, MD
Flora Wang, RN
Francine Yudkowitz, MD

Fall 2011 Newsletter
CCPF
CHILDREN OF CHINA PEDIATRICS FOUNDATION
T r a n s f o r m i n g L i v e s t h r o u g h M e d i c a l M i s s i o n s
CCPF’s FIRST VISIT to Chengdu
Nursing team in Chengdu
CCPF’s May 2011 medical mission to
Chengdu Women’s and Children’s Hospital
was the team’s first visit to Sichuan province.
Forty children were assessed during the mission,
thirty seven surgeries were performed.
The hospital serves the residents of the area
torn apart by the 2008 earthquake, many of
whom are still struggling to regain their health,
livelihood and normal daily existence. It is
also an area where countless orphaned children
are stretching limited resources.
“Over the last 12 years every time I have entered
a new hospital with the CCPF medical
team I am eager to begin meeting the orphans
we will treat, getting to know new Chinese colleagues
and sharing medical knowledge. Our
visit to Chengdu was that and more,” said David
P. Roye, Jr., MD, medical director of CCPF.
“ W o w ! W h a t a
great team we
had in Chengdu!
The reception we
received from the
nursing and hospital
s t a f f w a s s o
impressive. The
children that we
operated on were
very special to all
of us.”
—Carmela
Grande, RN
The Chengdu hospital was newly constructed
in 2010 with large, well equipped operating
rooms. The senior administration of the
hospital and the Chinese medical team were
well prepared for the visit and welcomed the
CCPF team with enthusiasm. Dr. Roye reflected
“[it’s] incredible that the Chinese medical
staff is able to open up their hospital,
allowing a group of foreign doctors and nurses
to perform surgery in their operating rooms.
It's something that just wouldn't happen in an
American hospital.”
The two goals of each CCPF medical mission
are to improve the care of Chinese orphans
and to share medical, surgical and
nursing knowledge with medical colleagues at
our host hospitals. In Chengdu, the CCPF educational
offerings were well attended by the
staff of the hospital and surrounding institutions,
and our team in turn learned new techniques
and approaches to medicine developed
in China. In addition to the technical education
exchange, we were able to promote our message
of volunteerism and the value of every
child – even if they do not have parents or the
means to get medical care.
“I have been a CCPF volunteer since
2007. Although I am not a surgeon or
physician, I have been able to contribute
translation services to the CCPF
team, drawing upon my studies in
medical school in China. My experiences
with CCPF have inspired me to
change my life goals.”
Liying Shen is a graduate student at Harvard
University School of Public Health

The CCPF MEDICAL AND SUPPORT TEAM in Chengdu
The children are so inspirational, appearing
to take the most challenging things in stride.
I feel like I learned so much from them
— Louise Strickland, RN
Dr. Marilou Caloustian and FuJiaFu
Tianyang in the recovery
room after his surgery
Tianyang made the two-day trip with his
foster siblings from Guangxi province. He
had made a similar journey to find the CCPF
team last year to correct a disorder with his
digestive tract which had left him incontinent
and subject to ridicule by his schoolmates.
On this trip, Dr. Eric Lazar was
delighted to find that the first surgery had
helped correct the disorder. On CCPF’s next
mission, Tianyang’s colostomy bag will be
removed and he should be fully continent
and able to lead an entirely normal life.
Fu Jia, a five-year-old girl who
lives in a Jiangxi orphanage, has osteogenesis
imperfecta, or brittle bone
syndrome. At her young age, she has
already broken both of her arms and
legs multiple times. Her x-rays show
bones which are curved like strung
bows. Similar to the other children
who came to Chengdu, Fu Jia doesn’t
let her medical condition define her
or dampen her spirit. She is gregarious
with strangers and loves to sing.
Unfortunately, there is no known cure
for this disorder, so CCPF’s orthopedics team
focused on mitigating some of the effects that
the condition has had on Fu Jia’s body. Specifically,
the team performed surgery implanting
hardware donated by Synthes to straighten Fu
Jia’s right leg. This hardware will protect
against future breaks and stabilize her walk.
Liu QiEr, Abby Allen, MD,
Darwin Chen, MD
It is very satisfying to give someone medical
care that they otherwise would not have
receive. Plus, many of these children have
deformities that carry a social stigma with
them. For orphans, these deformities make it
more difficult for them to get adopted. This
little girl, Liu QiEr, was born with two
thumbs. My colleague, Dr. Darwin Chen,
and I performed the Bilhaut-Cloquet procedure
on her, which turns her two thumbs on
each of her hands into one. This small
change in her thumbs could be a grand one
in her life.
— Abby Allen, MD Director of the
Pediatric Orthopaedic Clinic
at Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New Rehabilitation Program in Honor and
Memory of Maurice Spagnoletti
In memory of Maurice J. Spagnoletti, 57, of New Jersey, who passed away June 15,
2011, CCPF received an outpouring of donations from his family and friends. These extraordinary
gifts will be recognized by CCPF through the creation of a new program for
disabled orphans in China named in Maurice’s honor. CCPF is embarking on the creation
of the Spagnoletti Rehabilitation Program to provide training and support to orphanage
medical staff members, caregivers and foster parents in China caring for children with
cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and a host of other neuromuscular disorders that debilitate
and cause pain. CCPF is partnering in its efforts with the Chengdu Children’s
and Women’s Hospital rehabilitation program. Assembling a team of experts, Gena
Palumbo will be visiting orphanages in the Chengdu area next March to start the process
of identifying their needs. Our condolences go to the Spagnoletti family and our thanks
for asking friends and family to honor Maurice’s life by making donations in his memory
to our organization.

INFECTIOUS DISEASE CLINIC Launched
The initial phase of developing an infectious
disease clinic in Xi’an, China began in
August when Dr. Yan Zhuang completed his
five week training program at Dr. Phil
LaRussa’s laboratory in the Infectious Disease
Department at Columbia University
Medical Center. The training was designed
to allow Dr. Zhuang to become proficient in
HIV resistance testing. During his five
weeks in New York, he worked side-by-side
with expert laboratory personnel to under-
Dr. Yan Zhuang and Dr. Phil LaRussa
2011 CELEBRATION Nets $85,000
Letter from the President
We are so delighted to have met the colleagues we now call friends in
Chengdu. Our team immediately meshed with their team and we were
able to help change the lives of many children, some of whom traveled 24
hours by train to have surgeries. I’d like to thank our team, our sponsors,
and the generosity of our donors to make this a reality.
I thank Michelle Tong for chairing such a successful Evening of Celebration
this year, allowing us to raise enough funds to pay for a medical mission
and to David O’Brien for sharing his story and introducing his friend and
colleague Dr. Kuhn to CCPF.
I would also like to thank Dr. Phil LaRussa for his energy and commitment
to getting the infectious disease center launched. And to the Spagnoletti
family for remembering the children of China during their time of loss.
stand the sequence analysis software, the
sample kits and process by which samples
are collected. “He is a quick learner,” said
Dr. LaRussa. “We gave him some of our
hardest challenges and he was able to analyze
them quite well.”
Dr. Robert Lawrence Kuhn and David O’Brien were honored at the CCPF 2011 Evening of Celebration
where 140 attended and over $85,000 was raised.
Television celebrities Cindy Hsu, WCBS-TV Anchor and Arthur Chi’en, WPIX-TV Reporter emceed
the evening held in the prestigious Low Memorial Library on the campus of Columbia University
and shared their personal connections to helping children in China. They introduced the beautiful
performance by soprano Fang Tao Jiang and her two students Gloria Tang and Alison Kaplon.
Dr. Kuhn, noted expert on China and author of “How China’s Leaders Think: The Inside Story of
China's Reform and What This Means to the Future” told the audience that the Chinese desire to understand
the purpose and culture of philanthropy and that CCPF’s work, along with other NGO’s
efforts, is helping to shape China’s future. The evening’s second honoree, David O’Brien, shared his
family’s story and the decision to adopt two special needs children from China. He and his wife,
Noreen, and their two children received standing ovations.
Dr. LaRussa will visit Xi’an next year to
continue the training, provide medical lectures
on state-of-the-art care plans for HIV
in children and adolescents, and teach staff
how to obtain samples and examine infants
and children.
CCPF FELLOW from Beijing Children’s Hospital
Pediatric Orthopaedic Sur-
Remarking on his visit,
geon Dr. Lin Sun of Beijing
Dr. Sun said “I was able to
Children’s Hospital joined
see so many advanced and
Dr. David Roye for three
new procedures.” He was
weeks at the New York-Pres-
surprised at how long and
byterian Morgan Stanley
intense the training was for
Children’s Hospital in Sep-
young US surgeons and
tember as a Visiting Fellow.
impressed with the training
Observing in the operating
room every day, shadowing Dr. Lin Sun and Dr. David P. Roye, Jr.
that occurs during every
procedure. Dr. Sun works
surgeons during their clinic hours and seven days a week splitting his time
attending medical conferences and lectures, between Beijing and Nanchang. Dr. Sun is
Dr. Sun was immersed in the daily routine committed to providing more care for
of US pediatric orthopaedic surgeons. orphaned and indigent children.
Board Member Michelle Tong, Alison
Kaplon, Gloria Tang, Soprano Fang Tao
Jiang, Gena Palumbo, President
I feel fortunate to be part of such a dedicated group of people who share
a deep concern and commitment to helping orphaned children in China.
There are over 600 children whose lives are better because of their talent
and humanity.
We know there are thousands of children who need our help. There isn't
a better time than now to reach out and help transform a life.
Thank you,
Gena Palumbo
President and Founder