Children’s Hospital L.A. doctors aiding refugees, others in Jordan
Doctors from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles traveled to Amman, Jordan, this week to treat Syrian refugees and other local children with physical deformities.
The doctors have reviewed 76 cases and plan to conduct about 30 surgeries at the King Hussein Medical Center in Amman. The children have benign tumors, hand and facial deformities and ambiguous genitalia. The surgeries, some of which are lengthy and complex, will make an enormous difference in the lives of the children, the doctors said.
“Having a facial deformity can be emotionally and socially devastating for kids who simply want to fit in,” one of the surgeons, Mark M. Urata, said in a statement. “That’s our job: to help them have a normal childhood.”
The surgeons, with the division of plastic and maxillofacial surgery and the division of pediatric urology, are working with the nonprofit Children of War Foundation.
The mission is being led by Jeffrey Hammoudeh, director of the Jaw Deformities Center at Children’s Hospital. Hammoudeh was born in the West Bank before his family fled to Jordan. He and his parents came to the U.S. as refugees. Hammoudeh and the rest of the Children’s Hospital team also will lead a symposium for surgeons in the area.
Children’s Hospital teams have traveled to 47 nations, but this is the first trip to Jordan.
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