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From Gyang Bere, Jos
Smile Train, an NGO, sponsors free surgical operations for children and adults born with cleft lip and palate in Nigeria, a Consultant Plastic Surgeon at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Dr Amina Ibrahim Abubakar, has noted.
She encouraged communities to embark on a thorough search for children and adults who are battling in silence with the scourge of cleft lip and palate to come out and access the free medical surgery.
Dr Abubakar disclosed this during a training workshop organized by Smile Train for Media with the theme “The Media as a veritable tool for demystification of cleft”, which was held in Abuja.
She explained that a cleft lip is an opening on the mouth of a baby during birth while a cleft palate is also an opening on the roof of a baby during birth which constitute difficulties in speech and pains while eating.
Dr Abubakar noted that cleft is not a death sentence inflicted on a victim by witchcraft or any superstitious belief but a medical case which can be corrected through surgery.
“I have performed over 300 surgeries for children with cleft sponsored by Smile Train and over 30,000 persons have been treated in Nigeria by Smile Train and they are willing to do more.
“But we have difficulties in getting people to come out and access this free surgery because of the belief system of certain communities. There are individuals who hide their children because of certain beliefs this is a health challenge that can be treated and corrected free,” she stated.
Related: Smile Train encourages Nigerians to avail children with cleft lip for corrective surgery
A Professor of Pediatric Surgery and Chief Consultant Pediatric Surgeon at the National Hospital, Abuja Prof Emmanuel Ameh, advocated for more funding for surgical operations across the country to save human lives.
He noted that over 2 billion people in the world lack access to the emergence and essential surgical care and said failure to appreciate the role of surgery in addressing important public health problems, led to disparities in surgical care.
Prof Ameh applauded Smile Train for training doctors and nurses to provide free surgical operation and care to cleft victims and called on the government to invest hugely in surgical operations in the country to achieve universal health coverage.
“You cannot put a cost to the treatment of cleft because it starts right from the time that the baby is born until when the palate is repaired, he will need speech therapy and a surgeon to work on his ear and you may still need to go and adjust the repair.
“Their care sometimes goes to early adulthood that is why it is difficult to peg a particular amount of money. Every stage of the treatment requires things that cannot be cost and quantified. Each time the parents have to bring the child to the hospital and they have left whatever they are doing and that has to go into the cost.
“Everything must be done to ensure that the victims are identified early, treated early so that their treatment does not become complex to avoid too many hospital visits,” he stated.
