Her destiny changed the day she met medical volunteers from Operation Smile.

Cindi Raglin, RN, who works in the neonatal intensive care unit at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk, Va., is one of many nurse volunteers who have traveled on medical missions with Operation Smile, a private, nonprofit volunteer medical services organization based in Norfolk, Va.

Through Operation Smile, nurses from across the world spend two weeks working as part of a medical team to provide free reconstructive surgery to children in India and other developing countries. Medical volunteers provide the surgery and supplies needed to repair cleft lips, cleft palates, burns, tumors and other birth defects.

During an international mission, Operation Smile volunteers can repair a cleft lip in as little as 45 minutes at a cost of $750. Surgeries are funded through individual and corporate donations and provided at no cost to families.

"It's remarkable to see the transformation after these children undergo surgery," Raglin said. "The girl in India who rarely smiled was beaming the day after her operation."

Raglin is one of Operation Smile's most ardent supporters. Not only has she traveled on nine missions with the organization, she also volunteers 30 hours a week at its headquarters, where she reviews volunteer applications and assigns nurses to medical teams.

"When you go on a mission with Operation Smile, it changes your life," Raglin said. "After my first mission, I fell in love with the organization."
William Magee, DDS, MD, and his wife, Kathleen, MSW, founded Operation Smile in 1982, after they traveled to the Philippines. They were overwhelmed to find hundreds of children who were ravaged by deformities and who had no access to medical care. The Magees returned the next year to help more than 200 children. With that mission, Operation Smile was born.

Last year, Operation Smile volunteers offered reconstructive surgery at 26 sites across the world, including Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. In addition to providing free surgical services in developing countries, Operation Smile provides education and training around the world to physicians and other health care professionals to achieve long-term self-sufficiency.

"You meet the most incredible families on these missions," Raglin said. "One family in Colombia had just lost their home and everything they owned in a mudslide, but all they cared about was their child having the chance to have their cleft palate corrected."

Terri Klimek, MS, CRNA, of the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, clearly remembers the faces that greeted her when she first arrived in Morocco on an Operation Smile mission.

"There were hundreds of people waiting and hoping their children would be selected for surgery," Klimek said. "Many come from miles away by mule, by bus or on foot. When you have screened 300 to 600 patients and can operate on only 120 to 160, you understand the Magees' dedication to helping these children."

Medical volunteers work in conditions that are far different from the state-of-the-art medical centers in the United States.

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