Child Surgery Vietnam-USA 2026 Team USA 🇻🇳 🇺🇸

  Hi Team USA, First update as we kickoff our 2026 campaign.   I arrived in Vietnam last week and have been busy traveling to the remote provinces to train the local medical staff.    Our program has major expansion plans for 2026.   We will increase our area of impact from 15 provinces in 2025 to 27 provinces in 2026.  This expansion has caused us to change our patient screening process and rely more on local medical staff in the Provinces/Districts/Villages to help screen and evaluate patients for the program.   Because of this new model of screening the local team requested that I return to Vietnam early this year to help provide them with feedback and guidance on the new screening model. After observing several training sessions I am struck by the amount of local medical staff that will be involved.    At each of our training sessions at the province level there were approx 140  local ...

Surgery week in Cao Bang province was very unique.   Unique ?  As I have mentioned before when our team comes to town we place a extra strain on the system.   In addition to the normal patient population we often add an additional 200 patients plus families.   That strain turned out to be to much for the hospital in Cao Bang.   So we made a last moment decision to transfer 50 patients and families to Bac Kan Province Hospital which is 100 kilometers away.   I was concerned because the families in Cao Bang were not aware of this.  During the final evaluation by the surgeons on Monday it would be decided which patients would be transferred.  Only then did families learned they would be going to another province for a week for surgery.   The bus leaves in 2 hours be in the hospital lobby.   Logistic nightmare, how would the families react?   Well in typical Vietnamese fashion the fa...

Quick follow-up from my post on surgery week in Ha Giang Province.   James, a young man I met volunteering at the Center for Visually Impaired Children.  James asked if he could join our team to help the children.   James is from California but now lives here in Hanoi with his wife.     On our way to Ha Giang Province I asked James "You must be thinking what can I do to be of value as a volunteer this week for the children?   I advised James that the best value he and I can bring is to engage with the children and families.  They will feel very special. This experience will be life changing so take in those special moments.  After this week you will want to share your experience and love you felt with friends and family.   It will be hard to put into words the true feelings you will have meeting the children and families first hand.  So enjoy the experience and capture the special moments that will ...

It's been a very busy time here in Vietnam .   Just completed a 3 week road trip which took us to 3 of the most remote provinces on the Laos and China borders: Binh Dinh, Lai Chau and Lao Cai.   June 1st at 5:30am members of our team and specialists from Hanoi set off for a 14 hour drive to Binh Dinh province.   On arrival we were warmly greeted by over 250 families and children awaiting surgery. Over the 3 week trip we performed over 500 life changing surgeries.    My fondest memory from our trip was tears of joy.   So many parents and children could not hold back the tears when expressing their gratitude for helping their family and children receive the life changing care that they could not afford.  I feel so blessed to represent Team USA and only wish you could be here to receive first hand the so many heartfelt  words of appreciation.   Your selfless support is impacting so many lives. Example :  We had a...

Quick update on our 3 week road trip. Week two was spent in Lai Chau Province on the border of China. Most notable about the northern regions of Vietnam is the diversity of the population. In Dinh Binh and Lai Chau less than 20% of the population is Vietnamese. 80% of the population is represented by many different ethnic groups. In Lai Chau the Vietnamese population is 16% the largest ethnic groups are Thai at 31%, Mong 24%. The diversity is amazing and the different ethnic tribes still wear the traditional clothing to identify themselves. . image.png It is the beauty of the landscape, the people and cultural diversity that makes the northern provinces my favorite places in Vietnam. If you are ever in Vietnam make visiting one of the northern provinces a priority. I hope to capture some of the beauty of Lai Chau province in the Google photo link. Enjoy https://photos.app.goo.gl/AbA4DduVMCzp69hH8 Regards, Bob McGarry

Hello from beautiful Quang Binh Province.   Quang Binh is located in central Vietnam and features both ocean front and amazing mountain ranges.  The volume of patients screened this week was lower however 60% of those we screened will  receive surgery in the coming months.   Quang Binh is a province we have been serving for years and the local medical community has experience identifying those who are best suited for our services.    Baby Minh is the youngest baby at only 7 weeks who will benefit from your generosity.   We will perform cleft lip repair on Minh when we return for surgery in July.   Changing her future forever.  Here is the Google photo link for the Quang Binh screening.   Based on popular demand I have added many more photos of the local area and regional food.   Enjoy. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ HCLUsqUsw6WFkEuU6 Next week we head north to Cao Bang Province in the mountain...