Professor BAEK Rong-Min is a world renowned plastic surgeon currently on staff at Seoul National University College of Medicine and Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. Since 1996, he has visited Vietnam annually to use his expertise to help children with facial deformities to find their smile again. Professor Baek and his team operated around 200 Vietnamese children every year. He has brought beautiful smiles to the faces of more than 2,900 Vietnamese children with facial deformities such as cleft lip and palate. Professor Baek says that his wish is to devote his life to helping as many children as he can.

Professor KIM Woong-Han of Seoul National University Hospital has saved the lives of over 100 children with heart conditions in Mongolia and Uzbekistan over the past 10 years. The survival rate of children with heart deformities in Korea is 98%, however in less developed countries many children die because they cannot receive relatively simple procedures. This harsh reality drove Dr. Kim to begin travelling abroad each year. He says his energy comes from watching the smiles of children who before surgery had had trouble even breathing.

Kim emphasizes that serving abroad isn’t only about operating on patients; it is equally important to teach local doctors the necessary techniques to save patients on their own. Seoul National University’s College of Medicine brings local doctors from under-developed countries such as Laos, Mongolia, Iraq, etc. to its hospital to receive training and learn the latest medical techniques to practice in their home countries.

Oct. 4, 2010
SNU PR Office