Retired St. Paul doctor uses skills to help Bolivians

theindependent.com Published Sunday, June 8, 2003 Last modified at 1:01 a.m. on Sunday, June 8, 2003 By Gretchen Fowler gfowler@theindependent.com

ST. PAUL -- Retired St. Paul doctor Maurice Mathews returned from his first humanitarian mission overseas with a bundle of photos and stories to last a lifetime.

Mathews left for Sucre, Bolivia May 13.

He was gone for two weeks and spent 10 days volunteering his services with Rotaplast International, a nonprofit organization established in 1992.

According to www.rotaplast.org, the mission of Rotaplast International is to provide free reconstructive surgery and treatment for underprivileged children worldwide, to provide education, and to advance research in the prevention of cleft lip and palate.

While in Bolivia, Mathews' job was to sterilize equipment used in a series of surgical procedures to correct deformities in underprivileged children and adults.

The hospital where the procedures took place was a teaching hospital, so when medical students weren't available, Mathews scrubbed in.

The majority of the procedures done were to fix cleft lips and palates in children.

However, because of age restrictions and the medical conditions of some patients, not all children were able to be helped during the trip.

"Some of the little ones, it would just break your heart to see them (have to wait another year)," Mathews said.

Going through the pictures from his trip, Mathews showed the photograph of an older man who had gone all his life with a cleft lip. In the next photo, he stood smiling beside the man whose appearance had been drastically improved.

Mathews also assisted in procedures that involved working on patients' arms and ears. While he doesn't have experience in plastic surgery, Mathews said he performed numerous surgical procedures during his 38-year career in St. Paul. He retired in 1998.

The plastic surgeons Mathews worked with in Bolivia came from the United States, Bolivia and Guatemala. Rotaplast groups have completed missions in Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Guatemala, Ecuador, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Mathews said part of the missions is to conduct research and perform case studies to help doctors learn more about the high occurrence of cleft lip and cleft palate in certain countries. That way, he said, more can be done to prevent similar cases in the future.

Mathews spends most of his time working on his tree farm northeast of St. Paul but said he felt volunteering his time to this cause would be a good thing to do.

"I've been a life student of both Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa. I wanted to have the experience, even if it was only for a week or two, doing what they did their whole life," Mathews said, " -- helping the poorest of the poor."

Equipment for such missions is purchased with donations made to Rotary International. Rotaplast International was founded by a Rotary Club president and is an ongoing project of the Rotary Club. Mathews became a charter member of the St. Paul Rotary Club 19 years ago and has been a member ever since.

For more information on Rotaplast, log on to www.rotaplast.org.