By Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey
Accra, April 06, GNA – Two Non- Governmental Organizations, Operation Smile Ghana and Qatar Charity Foundations has launched a free cleft corrective surgery programme for 60 children born and living with cleft lip and palate in Ghana.
The free surgery programme which is expected to last for four months, will be done at the Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Mr Elikem Nyavor, Country Manager, Operation Smile Ghana said the cost of surgery is USD 1000 per person and the NGOs will foot the bills for all 60 persons.
He said the selected patients would be provided with comprehensive care which included nutritional care before the operation, that he said would improve the health and dignity of the children.
Mr Nyavor said the programme was also considering operating about 200 persons identified after the first phase.
“Research suggests that there are about 10,000 people living with cleft palate that need to be found and the two organizations would work together to reach these patients,” he said.
Mr Nyavor said cleft was a medical condition, a birth anomaly and a facial deformity which could be fixed in about 45 minutes to transform a child’s life
“There are two types of Clift, the lip and the palate, the lip takes 30 to 45 minutes for a surgery to be conducted while a palate may take about an hour to three hours depending on the complexity of the case,” he said.
He said capacity had grown enough in the country to enable the delivery of the service often, saying that 10 patients would be attended to each week
Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, CEO, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, said cleft needed to be fixed by the first two years of a child’s life and the timing was of the essence.
He said most cleft patients had been neglected due to the stigma attached to the condition , most patients also neglect treatment due to poverty.
Dr Hamad Al Jaber, a Plastic Surgeon Quarter Foundation, said the “foundation seeks to raise enough funding to reach out to more children living with cleft palate.”
He said the foundation was doing a free cleft surgery programme in 10 countries.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are openings or splits in the upper lip, the roof of the mouth (palate) or both. Cleft lip and cleft palate result when facial structures that are developing in an unborn baby do not close completely.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are among the most common birth defects, they most commonly occur as isolated birth defects but are also associated with many inherited genetic conditions or syndromes.
GNA