Did you know that every year, Dr. Popham and some of his staff lead a team of volunteers to Vietnam to do surgical work for people in desperate need? In fact, Dr. Popham has been doing this for years each and every April. Dr. Popham and the team will evaluate hundreds of Vietnamese people with medical conditions that need to be corrected and based on the severity of their situation; they will be selected to undergo free surgery in the following days. Dr. Popham and his team work from sun-up to sun-down doing evaluations and surgeries and because of this, they see hundreds of people get the life-changing facial surgery they so desperately need.
Last year, Dr. Popham performed surgery on a 5 year old boy who suffered from blepharoptosis, a condition where the eyelid is unable to open unless manually lifted. Because of this, the child would eventually develop amblyopia or lazy eyes and eventually the brain would shut down and the child would become blind. Dr. Popham was able to perform a frontalis suspension or ptosis repair on this young boy giving him a gift that will last a lifetime.
Dr. Popham was also able to repair a horrible wound on a young woman after she was attacked with a bucket of sulfuric acid thrown in her face. This woman suffered for years and gradually became depressed and embarrassed by her unrecognizable face. Dr. Popham was able to re-build her eyelids which were burned away by the acid. This young woman was also was able to get a visa to come to the United States for much needed further corrective surgeries, even a corneal transplant which restored her blinded eyes to 20/20 vision. Her world was changed!
Aside from doing surgeries, Dr. Popham spends time with Vietnamese surgeons training them on oculoplastic surgical procedures so they are able to help people in their own homeland. He and his wife, Nadine, also sponsor a home for orphaned girls called Homes of Love. Because of this, these little girls are given not only their daily care, but an amazing education, giving them a chance to really succeed in life.
We are very proud of Dr. Popham and the work he is doing in Vietnam.
If you are interested in donating to this work, you can donate through his foundation called About Face. Call our office for more details. 303-468-8844