When most of us hear the phrase Plastic Surgery, we imagine glamorous Hollywood stars with new pouty lips, dappled cheekbones, and perky breasts. But plastic surgery isn’t all aesthetics. Every year, thousands of selfless doctors, like Dr. Marshall T. Partington, and other experienced medical staff, provide another service in plastic surgery: reconstruction.
Reconstructive surgery is performed on abnormal structures of the body, caused by birth defects, trauma, injury, tumors, or disease. The procedures are performed to improve bodily functions, but may also be done to create a natural appearance.
Dr. Partington is the former director of Microsurgery at the University of Pennsylvania where he learned the intricacies and dexterity of his craft. His work lead him to establish his own plastic surgery practice in Redmond, Washington.
Twice a year, Dr. Partington offers full reconstructive surgery to children worldwide with a group of multi-international doctors and nurses through Interplast, a non-profit medical organization. “We take care of exposed bones, toe transplantation, scalp reconstruction, cosmetic burns, and cleft palates. I know the experience has made me a happier and fulfilled person. It reinforces my original calling to be a physician. It challenges you to see if that flame is still burning.”
His first overseas undertaking was in Shanghai, China in 1991, and during his sixteen years of service with Interplast, he has done work throughout Mongolia, Brazil, Ecuador, and the Philippines. Partington recalls the first time he met the locals. “Traveling to a new place through doing service is the best way to travel because you are immediately integrated into a community. You are introduced to families. People are entrusting their children, their dearest belongings, to you.”
Partington’s recalls working in Ecuador with a two-year-old burn victim, named Paulina. “She was begging in the market with her family and had a big bubble of scar tissue. The damage fused her arm to her body. Anxious to help her, we asked the family for permission to do the surgery. But she was the breadwinner because of her pitiful appearance and the family was torn about losing the income. We personally had pooled resources to support the family and were allowed operate on the little girl. Now, I have this wonderful picture of her. Her arms are pointed straight up in the air. It is this kind of gratitude, without even understanding their language, that makes performing plastic surgery rewarding.”
But Dr. Partington and Interplast’s teamwork doesn’t end when the patients have recovered. The skilled group cultivates an international relationship through education and follow-up visits. “Our primary purpose is to empower the site. A lot of our effort is to demonstrate how to do procedures. Our goal is to have local doctors perform their own surgeries, which we very carefully follow.”
In Nepal, Dr. Partington engaged in one of Interplast’s most successful educational ventures. “We set up a cleft palate program and there was a general surgeon, Dr. Rey, who showed such an interest that he trained in plastic surgery. He now has organized initiatives with at least five different fellows. Dr. Rey has also become one of our volunteers. It is a nice picture of that giving and receiving cycle.”
In the United States, Dr. Partington continues to create awareness throughout his daily life. He comments, “I use plastic surgery as a conversation to help people understand the greater context of this practice.” He also informs and educates every client that comes to his office for cosmetic surgery by donating ten dollars in their name to www.nothingbutnets.net. Established by the Gates Foundation, the program supplies African villagers with mosquito netting to prevent malaria. He recalls, “my father always taught me that success was finding satisfaction in who we are rather than in what we have.”
Dr. Partington is brushing up on his French, getting his shots, and is reorganizing his schedule for his next volunteer trip to Mali, Africa. His wife, Jeanette, is a nurse and is a member of Interplast, and the Partington’s 15 year-old twins, Trevor and Olivia are finishing their summer working with Littlebit, a therapeutic riding center for kids and adults with physical disabilities.
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