Toledo surgeon embarks on big journey

Dr. Frank Barone will board a plane for Vietnam to perform dozens of surgeries for free.

One of Toledo's top plastic surgeons embarks on a big journey Thursday. And he'll perform dozens of surgeries far away for free. Doctor Frank Barone will board a plane for Vietnam Thursday. This trip will mark his return to that country after 20 years. And that first trip helped change his life.

Dr. Frank Barone says, "I never expected anything like it. It's really overwhelming at first." Doctor Frank Barone recalls his first mission trip with Operation Smile 22 years ago. He studied under the group's founder in Virginia. Traveling with the group to Africa changed the course of his life. He says, "They have allowed me to go places I never would have seen and I think it helps me become a better surgeon in the process. You become much more independent."

China, Kenya, Brazil, Honduras - nearly 30 mission trips with other medical professionals. The goal is treating children with cleft lip and cleft palette, a condition that shows up often in areas with poor nutrition. This next trip is a milestone: Operation Smile's twentieth anniversary trip back to Vietnam. Dr. Barone was there back in 1989. "That was a very emotional trip because we had seven veterans from the war. And this was their first time back to Vietnam since they'd been in the war," he says.

Operation Smile volunteers have repaired facial deformities on nearly 20,000 Vietnamese children. They also train local doctors and help with nutrition and health education. "It's what we really got into medicine to do, helping. And there's no greater emotional impact than helping a child with a facial deformity where you can make a difference in an hour with a surgical procedure," says Barone.

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