MISSION TO INDIA: VOLUNTEER SURGEONS Photography by Wayne Schoenfeld Written by Rex Weiner Introduction by Richard Rabinowitz, Publisher American Photo Excerpt from the Daily Journal, Karaika, India Thursday, January 22, 2004 The boy with the haunting eyes peering out over the shirt collar yanked up to his nose like a veil is just about the worst case the Rotaplast doctors have ever seen. A kerosene stove explosion a couple years ago left 16-year-old Rajkumar with tight bands of mottled scar tissue around his neck, pulling his head down, the chin melted away and lower lip fused to his chest. A painfully open cavity gapes where a mouth should be. It’s mid-afternoon at the Vinayaka Hospital, and the boy and his father are wordlessly watching doctors Angelo Capozzi and Ron Gemberling trying to figure out whether there’s anything they can do for him. The team is here in India mainly to repair cleft palates and lips, but Angelo says they often fit burn cases into their schedules, if they see a way to get a child functioning better... Rex Weiner, MISSION TO INDIA AVAILABLE AT FINE BOOKSELLERS EVERYWHERE SEPTEMBER 2004 ISBN 0-9727696-6-8 USA $29.99