Charity

Prof Dr Heidekrüger and Prof Dr Broer are members of INTERPLAST-Germany and have been involved for many years in aid projects for children and adults in Germany and abroad (so far Burma, Laos, Philippines, India, Palestine, Peru, Africa), where they perform plastic surgery operations free of charge.

Patients suffer from severe facial malformations, cleft lips, jaws and palates, hand malformations, burn scars or tumours as well as tissue defects following accidents or as a result of war. Untreated consequences of accidents or congenital malformations can lead to disfigurement and considerable loss of function, particularly in the arms, legs and face. The affected patients are then often no longer able to care for their family or themselves. The operations carried out by Interplast only operate on patients who would not be able to afford treatment without support. The costs are financed by donations and the annual contribution of Interplast members.

The aim of the treatments is to enable patients to become a socially integrated part of their society again. Unfortunately, in many countries congenital malformations or diseases are often seen as a punishment for misbehaviour by divine powers, and those affected are socially marginalised.

The surgical teams travel to the respective host country for around two weeks at the invitation of a hospital or country administration. Both the local doctors and nursing staff are involved in the work and trained as far as possible. Ideally, our host colleagues will be able to continue the work on site independently after our departure. To be able to guarantee this, the agreement of the local colleagues with our arrival is an absolute prerequisite.

In order to be able to help as many patients as possible in the short period of an operation, which is usually only two weeks, our colleagues in the host country make a pre-selection of patients before we arrive, which they then present to us at the start of the operation.

The work of INTERPLAST Germany is based on the voluntary, unpaid commitment of its members.

We would like to continue this commitment in the future and look forward to any support.