June 2011 Archives

That's how GSK & Liberty/Synterra commemorated the June 9^th 'green' breaking at The Navy Yard--with trees and dirt. It may not sound exciting but it was pretty cool. Wait, that's not true. It was HOT. The temperature hovered around 93 degrees. Relief was found under the tent with solar-powered fans and plenty of water and it was a great moment for everyone.

Deirdre Connelly, President, NA Pharmaceuticals; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and Liberty CEO Bill Hankowsky shared their enthusiasm for the new building and The Navy Yard site. Deirdre emphasized that the building will be designed to enable better collaboration and communication so we can deliver better value to our patients. View Deirdre's remarks first-hand. 

A front-end loader seemed to magically appear from behind the dirt, and drove up to the tent with three trees. We then had a chance to witness the shoveling prowess of the officials. The planting clearly signified the sustainability aspect of the new 205,000 square-foot, four-story facility.  

After the ceremony, guests enjoyed food including TastyKakes courtesy of our future neighbors. Served, not surprisingly, with bamboo forks and napkins made of recovered paper fiber. It was one more reminder of GSK's global commitment to operating a green company.

The groundbreaking was an important milestone reached just four months after the agreement was signed. Although employees from Center City won't start moving to the new site until late 2012, it is exciting to see things progress. I was impressed with all the activity that is happening there--it's clearly becoming the place where people want to be.

At The Navy Yard, GSK has found a way to continue its legacy.  Right now it might only consist of a few young trees and large piles of dirt, but it's the future home of GSK and that makes me proud.

Read more about the Navy Yard.

GSK PULSE Volunteer, Len is working with a non-profit organization, Rotaplast, to provide pre-operative and post-operative pediatric care for cleft palate surgeries in India & Bangladesh.

Today was the last day of operations. We operated on 105 patients during this very successful medical mission. The mission's success is due to many factors, but four stand out.

We were hosted by the Chittagong, Agrabad Rotary Club. Starting months before our team arrived, these Rotarians worked round the clock identifying potential patients, assisting with translation and other patient needs at the Nurture Centre, and making us feel at home in Chittagong. They were incredibly generous with their time and hospitality.

The Nurture Centre's founder Nasreen and her extended family and friends are angels. Words can't describe the kindness and empathy they provided to our team and to the children and their families.

Our team of surgeons, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, recovery room nurses, operating room nurses, and non-medical volunteers was simply incredible.

The people of Bangladesh are warm, friendly, and resilient. Working with these children and their families was a real pleasure. 

As I was leaving today, Nasreen's sister Selma asked me "Why do you do this? What makes you travel far away from your family to treat poor children?" I answered that my reason was the same as her sister's. Nasreen founded the hospital because her own children had access to medical care and she identified that many others did not.  She wanted to address this gap, and she had the capability to do so. I know I speak for all of my amazing Rotaplast colleagues in saying that we volunteer because we also see a gap and we have the capability to help close it.

Parents in Bangladesh are no different than parents in my home town--we are all the same as we strive to provide the best opportunities for our children. I am very glad I had the opportunity to serve. I am grateful to GlaxoSmithKline for allowing me to take time to volunteer and I can't thank enough my family for their support.

GSK PULSE Volunteer, Len is working with a non-profit organization, Rotaplast, to provide pre-operative and post-operative pediatric care for cleft palate surgeries in India & Bangladesh.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that the founder of the Nurture Centre where we are working is a woman named Nasreen. Nasreen has created a very special center where people in need can receive medical care and her generosity and selfishness also extends to her family and friends. Nasreen's sister Selma, who lives in Texas, travelled to Chittagong to help us with the mission along with her 22-year-old son Shehzwan (Shez). Shez, a neuroscience student at the University of Texas at Dallas has been helping the Rotaplast team as an interpreter.

On the first day of the mission, identical twins walked into our intake clinic. These brothers, who speak Bangla and English, have been at our side round the clock. They have been interpreting, assisting the operating room nurses, transporting patients, finding supplies, changing dressings, fixing the air conditioners, (it has been over 100F every day), and doing whatever is asked--always with a smile. They are Nasreen's 23-year-old boys (there is also a 10 year old sister). Yamin and Yasir enjoy being together.

They attended The National University in Singapore and spent a post-graduate year at Harvard and MIT studying fluid mechanics. This Fall they will be enrolling in Cambridge's aerospace engineering PhD program. As if being astronauts isn't enough, Nasreen would like them also to be medical doctors.

The wards have been filled with wonderful patients and each day we are creating many new smiles. The children and their families welcome me to take pictures and they enjoy viewing the pictures in the playback mode on my camera. Everyone here has a cell phone and I have been in hundreds of cell phone photos the parents are taking as well.

One patient from yesterday stands out. Twelve year old Rohamat pictured below was born with a cleft lip and a nose deformity. His parents had no idea that the deformity could be fixed by surgery until just a few weeks ago when they saw a newspaper advertisement about the Rotaplast mission. They travelled eight hours by bus to get to Chittagong. Their father told us that Rohamat has been given a new life.

GSK PULSE Volunteer, Len is working with a non-profit organization, Rotaplast, to provide pre-operative and post-operative pediatric care for cleft palate surgeries in India & Bangladesh.

On a recent Saturday at the Nurture Centre, we made 17 new smiles. One of the children is 10-year-old Riyaz. Soon after birth he developed a growth on his upper lip that was operated on when he was six years old. After that surgery, the growth increased in size and two years ago he also developed a growth on his left upper eyelid. He attends school but has trouble concentrating because his eyes hurt when he reads for long periods. I enjoy speaking with the children to learn about their lives and what they like to do. Riyaz plans to be a wholesale business person like his father.

Our surgical team removed tissue from his eyelid and lip and pictures below show the dramatic difference. It is not clear what has caused the tissue growth. Tissue samples were sent out to a local hospital laboratory for examination and I hope we have the pathology results before our mission concludes.      

Mohammed, 15, was born with a cleft lip and had surgery when he was younger. The first surgery did not completely repair the defect so he came to see us. Our team of surgeons did their magic and created a fantastic new smile. Mohammed plays soccer and cricket, sometimes wears his hair spiked with gel so it looks like he has a Mohawk and wants to be a doctor. His father told us when seeing his son for the first time after the surgery, "he was always beautiful, and now is even more beautiful."

Our last patient on Saturday was a 28-year-old man also named Mohammed. As he was recovering from the surgery, I noted that a young woman with a little child in tow was sitting next to his bed in the recovery room. She was beaming and so happy. She was Mohammed's wife and it was an honor to see her joy upon seeing her husband's appearance transformed.

We stayed late in the hospital last evening taking care of a 5-month-old who had her cleft lip repaired. She developed respiratory distress, required extra oxygen and developed a fever in the recovery room. We started treatment for pneumonia and transferred her to a nearby hospital with the help of local doctors so she could have closer monitoring overnight. While we were waiting for the ambulance the wind picked up and a storm blew through. It rained like cats and dogs for 60 minutes and the ambulance was delayed getting to us because the roads were flooded.

When we finally left at 10:15 PM, it had stopped pouring but it was quite a scene. Many of the roads in Chittagong are dirt and those that are paved have poor drainage. The roads were filled with water four to five inches deep. This did not seem to bother the Bengalese who continued going about their business as if nothing had happened. Men were driving passengers in bicycle rickshaws despite water covering a good portion of the tires, people walked through the streets with no mind at all to the water obstacles, water flowed from the roads into shops and did not disrupt business, and people sat in restaurants with water way above their ankles. The only difference I could tell from the rain was that it made the traffic and congestion even worse. At one point when we were moving inches at a time a car in front of us decided to turn around in the middle of the road and somehow managed to drive against traffic. We could not believe our eyes.

Flooding is a serious problem in Bangladesh. The country is the size of Utah and has a population of 164 million (half the US population). It is already wall-to-wall people and the population is expected to rise to 220 million by 2050. In the future, large portions of this country will likely be under water as the sea levels rise due to destructive river flooding and cyclones which have been increasing in intensity. As the sea levels rise, salt water mixes with coastal fresh water streams interfering with the growth of crops and fish farming. Loss of land for people to live on and to farm is a big issue as the cities are already overcrowded. Their neighbor India is concerned about immigration and is building a 2,500 mile border security fence.

My experience working with the Bengalese people is that they are resilient and adaptable. I am glad we are here to help some children and their families as now they have one less thing to worry about.