Dr. Snyder brings smiles to patients in Nicaragua

UNMC’s Mary Snyder, M.D., (left) and Deb Rusy, M.D., of the University of Wisconsin, prepare to do a cleft lip repair surgery on an infant in Matagalpa, Nicaragua.

For Mary Snyder, M.D., vacations are a time to work harder than ever.

More than 40 surgeries in one week is a pace that leaves little room for rest and relaxation — but for Dr. Snyder, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon for UNMC Physicians and associate professor at UNMC, the reward of helping others smile is worth giving up her much-earned time off.

“This past October I spent a week in Nicaragua repairing cleft lips and palates. In that one week, I performed forty surgeries,” Dr. Snyder said. “It was my second trip this year and my third in 18 months.”

She travels with a group based in Madison, Wis., called Eduplast.

Eduplast is a non-profit organization affiliated with the University of Wisconsin with a two-fold mission: to provide reconstructive surgery to at-need populations in developing countries and to establish training programs in plastic and reconstructive surgery so that care can continue long after the mission teams have gone home.

Since its founding in 1991, Eduplast has started plastic surgery residency programs in both Nicaragua and Ecuador.

“One of my most memorable patients in Nicaragua was an 8-year-old girl whose family traveled eight hours by canoe to have her cleft lip repaired,” Dr. Snyder said. “After her surgery, her mother was so proud she put the girl in a yellow satin dress and showed her off around the hospital.”

A 14-month-old patient one day after undergoing cleft lip repair in Bonanza, Nicaragua.

Dr. Snyder and her team work with patients from small rural towns in eastern Nicaragua. The Nicaraguan government will cover the cost of reconstructive surgery for cleft lips and palates if the patients can seek care at one of the hospitals in the western part of the country. However, it’s very rare for any of the east coast families to receive this care because of the challenge to travel cross-country through a dense rainforest and non-established roads.

“The best part of taking these mission trips is seeing how much the parents appreciate what we do for their children,” Dr. Snyder said. “Though they have very little, they always try to give something in return — food, gifts, even opening their homes to us. Their generosity is amazing.”

Dr. Snyder is looking forward to returning to Nicaragua in the future to help more patients with cleft lips and palates.

“Clefts are not usually life-threatening conditions,” she said, “but if not repaired they can cause significant issues with eating, drinking and speaking, as well as enormous self-esteem and interpersonal problems.”

Eduplast members have made numerous mission trips to Nicaragua and Ecuador, as well as to Tibet and Cuba. Started by plastic surgeons, the foundation has now expanded to include general surgeons and gastroenterologists, who travel to Nicaragua twice yearly to provide medical care and training in laparoscopy and endoscopy. Foundation goals for 2007 include establishing plastic surgery programs in Kazakhstan and Honduras.