Dr. Nichter and Plasticos Foundation featured in Boston University Article

Dr. Larry Nichter and the Plasticos Foundation have been featured in an article on the Boston University website.

The article highlighted Plasticos Foundation’s work in Laos, and in particular the story of a 14-year-old girl who was able to walk again thanks to the team’s efforts. Importantly, the article described how disfigurements and birth defects often lead to social exclusion. Thus the Plasticos team’s work improves not only the patient’s physical well-being but gives them a new life by providing them with social acceptance.

The featured trip was on January 2009, and provided 95 patients with much-needed reconstructive surgery. However, this is just one of many Plasticos missions. Previous and subsequent missions have included Cuba, India, Armenia, and Cambodia.

Also emphasized in the article was the Plasticos Foundation’s “teach a man to fish” philosophy. The team not only performs surgeries but also trains local doctors and nurses to continue this work even after the Plasticos team has left. Dr. Nichter is quoted in the article:

When I went back to Vietnam, for instance, I asked someone I trained three years previously how many cleft lips he had done, and he said, ‘Oh, about a thousand.’ He performed more in three years than I’ll probably do in my lifetime. That is humbling and gratifying.”

The full text of the article is available on Boston University’s website.

More information on the Plasticos Foundation is available on its website.