A child abandoned by her father because of birth defects. A young man who was forced by constant bullying to leave school in the first grade. Two young siblings who bare the scars of previously attempted and failed surgeries.

These are just a few of the stories encountered by Team Cleft Repair during their third international surgical mission to Vietnam in September. The volunteer medical team successfully treated more than 40 patients–both new and returning–during their week at Hue University Medicine Hospital in Vĩnh Ninh, Vietnam.

With each patient came both a distinct clinical diagnosis for cleft lip and palate repair, as well as the opportunity to address, and give hope, to a unique personal experience of hardship.

“Healing is not just the mending of flesh—it is the restoration of identity, the rekindling of hope, the lifting of spirits long weighed down,” said team leader Myhanh Nguyen. “Today, in a single child’s smile, in the renewed confidence of young men, in the gentle teaching of nurses, and in the simple gift of a safe room for weary families, we saw glimpses of the future: one where scars give way to strength, and despair gives way to dignity.”

Read more about some of the patients Team Cleft Repair got to know below.

First and Last

After a long travel journey and busy screening day, Team Cleft Repair scheduled 44 surgeries for their 2025 mission. Among the most memorable was the very first on that schedule, which would ultimately be postponed to the team’s final day.

A “bright, playful little girl” with both a cleft lip and palate was one of eleven cases put on the schedule for the first day of surgery. Unfortunately, due to a mild respiratory infection, the one-year-old’s surgery was cancelled. Still hopeful, the team admitted the girl for care and observation and monitored her throughout the week.

A few days later, she received a successful cleft lip repair.

“The procedure went well, and with it, the trajectory of her life was forever altered,” Myhanh wrote.

Beyond the surgery, the young girl’s story was a reminder of what Team Cleft Repair and Operation International, as a global health nonprofit, are able to offer each of their patients outside the clinical procedure. As with every family seen by the team, the one-year-old’s family was offered a hotel room to stay in while they awaited treatment, a particular comfort given that due to poverty they typically seek shelter under a bridge.

“They spoke of their makeshift shelter under a bridge, a fragile refuge against the elements. Yet here, with the team, they found comfort, safety, and hope,” Myhanh said. “For one week, they could lay down their burdens and simply be a family.”

The hotel rooms provided to each family are meant to both maximize comfort and protect patients against infection in the crucial days leading up to surgery. Team Cleft Repair also provides food and a gift bag of essentials for each patient and their family, supporting them through every step of their healing journey.

The Starship Triplets

While Team Cleft Repair always encounters new families in need on their Operation International medical missions, there are often patients from past years who return to receive follow-up medical aid or additional surgeries from the team. On the 2025 trip, volunteers were reunited with a particularly beloved case, three triplets affectionately known as the “starship triplets.”

The triplets, who had their first cleft lip repair when they were five months old in 2023, returned as lively toddlers for successful palate repair surgeries.

“Last year they were turned away for pneumonia, they now stood strong, prepared for the next stage in their cleft repair journey,” Myhanh wrote.

The young boys’ mother had first connected with Team Cleft Repair in a support group for parents raising infants with cleft lip and palate when her babies were mere weeks old. In the group, she shared the “formidable challenges of raising triplets with this condition,” including societal stigma and the financial strain.

In the months that followed, Team Cleft Repair prepared the young boys for surgery with several care packages, including specially-designed cleft lip and palate bottles, infant formula, and matching outfits for the three boys. The assistance would help the babies reach a healthy weight for the procedure, which requires patients to be 10 pounds and at least 10 weeks old before surgery. Read more about their 2023 surgery here.

New Hope and New Bonds

Another unique case was an 18-year-old young man who received his first-ever cleft lip and palate surgery from the team. Like many of the rare older patients Team Cleft Repair encounters, the young man had endured into adulthood what is often repaired within a baby’s first three months.

The long wait had created challenges in the man’s life, which Myhanh became aware of when working through consent paperwork with him before the procedure.

“This young man had left school in the first grade, forced out by constant bullying. He never learned to write, unable to sign his own name,” she said.

Still, the surgery and the overall experience at the hospital offered a new beginning for the young man in more ways than one.

“In the hospital corridors, while waiting for his turn, he found two companions who shared his circumstance. In their laughter, in their quick friendship, a new brotherhood was born—bound not by blood, but by resilience,” Myhanh said. “Together they reminded us all that healing begins long before the operating table.”

Beyond Surgery

As always, as a chapter of a medical humanitarian organization, Team Cleft Repair’s impact at the hospital went beyond the free surgical care for underserved communities.

In addition to the surgeries, Team Cleft Repair volunteers spent the time to train local healthcare professionals–improving hospital infrastructure for local staff in both formal training and fortuitous teaching moments.

This included training and certification for 30 local doctors and nurses in the vital skills of basic life support, spearheaded by the team’s nurse educator. Also, in a series of rhinoplasties, local staff were able to observe and learn from a complex procedure using cartilage grafts. Team Cleft Repair’s dentist also took a teaching role, mentoring local doctors in essential dental procedures.

“This is the essence of sustainability: not just healing with our own hands, but equipping others to heal long after our ship has sailed,” Myhanh said. “Knowledge shared, resources given, and trust built—together these form a legacy of care. Each lesson, each certification, each donated instrument, and each patient touched by today’s compassion is a seed planted in the fertile ground of this community.”

To donate to medical missions for Team Cleft Repair, or to learn more about their work, please click here.