Love Without Reason is a charitable mission started by Santhosh and Susan Mathews who were inspired by the courage of their eldest child Philip Mathews. Their dream is to fight and help the less privileged children of the world who suffer from cleft lip and palate defects get free access to surgery so that they may grow up to be confident adults who can face the world without fear or being looked down upon. They hope to continue their battle “until the world is cleft free”. Philip lived in this world for 19 years and led a life that brought hope to children born with cleft lip and palate, their parents and families. He continues to be the force behind all that is done at Love Without Reason and his life shall always be the inspiration for all the members of the team.

Love Without Reason has been holding free surgical camps for these children in India, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda. The children are treated and parents counselled during these camps without having to spend on travel, stay and food. Love Without Reason takes care to ensure that the family of such children have a support system to fall back on in case of any medical emergency post-surgery and that they always have local teams which they can approach for counselling and follow up.

The surgical camps are conducted by teams from India and Zimbabwe and consists of surgeons, anaesthesiologists and paediatricians. Axon Anaesthesia Associates is proud to have been associated with 4 such missions in India, Zimbabwe and Kenya and hopes to continue for the ones in the future. The team is led by a senior anaesthesiologist and has 4-5 members who have or are being trained in paediatric anaesthesiology and are passionate about the specialty. They are involved in screening the patients before surgery, planning the surgical list for the mission and peri-operative care of the patients. The team also helps Love Without Reason in planning for each camp as regards the medical supplies and in putting protocols for the surgeries. They assist the paediatric team in the pre and post-op management of these patients.

This provides a wonderful opportunity for budding paediatric anaesthesiologists to learn from seniors and practically handle such a difficult subset of population. Axon Anaesthesia Associates ensures that at least one of the members is a fellow in paediatric anaesthesiology during these camps ensuring that they are exposed to the challenges of the specialty and of working in difficult conditions. They learn the value of working as a team and under various constraints to provide the best possible care to their little patients.