By Clyde Noel

Rotarian Tracie Murray introduced Alexander Ellenberg as a doctor who works in a different type of health care. Ellenberg is a plastic surgeon who volunteers with Rotoplast, a Rotary plastic surgery program.

Rotoplast is an organization founded in San Francisco in 1991 that sends Rotarians to Latin America, where cranial-facial deformities are five times more prevalent than in the United States, to perform plastic surgery on children with congenital disorders.

“It is a true Rotary to Rotary hands-on experience because you work with a Rotary Club in Latin America that provides housing and meals and finds the patients (mostly babies),” Ellenberg said. “They also serve as the translators, obtain transportation and provide the hospital where the surgery is performed.”

Ellenberg said 40,000 children a year are born with cleft lips or palates and are at an immediate risk of malnutrition and pneumonia because of the deformity. Even greater is the risk of suffering a lifetime of stares or being confined to their house to avoid them. The desire to be and look normal is one of the most powerful human needs and has no age barrier. Parents are willing to give up their babies to strangers in hope of a miracle. Many of the untreated children are at risk of becoming drug addicts or prostitutes.

“There is no way for governments to pay for an operation, so we went down with a group of 30 people and operate on 200 patients,” Ellenberg said. “We flew to Caracas and they provided a C130 plane because we had 50 cases of medical supplies and toys.”

The plane flew to Barquesemento, Venezuela, where the local Rotary housed the team and set up the hospital.

“Conditions aren’t good because wild dogs and cats run through the hospital,” Ellenberg said. “But after the operation, every child gets a toy.”

Ellenberg is a San Jose Rotary member and leads Rotoplast missions made up of other Rotarians from District 5170. A mission usually consists of 30 members and the cost, $40-50,000, is funded by the Rotary. Instrument companies and surgical supply manufacturers donate supplies and equipment.

“An operation in Latin America costs about $250.” Ellenberg said. “To perform the same operation here in California would cost between $30,000 and $40,000.”

Rotoplast sponsors 18 teams who conduct about 4,000 operations a year.

“Rotoplast is a teaching experience. We spend time with the pediatricians after the operations,” Ellenberg said. “They aren’t that professional, so we have to provide them with instructions for post-op care.”

Future Rotoplast trips plan to include China, India and Africa.