Free re-constructive surgery for children with cleft lip

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, JUNE 18. The Bangalore Hospital will offer free reconstructive surgery to poor children born with cleft lip and palates.

The hospital has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with "The Smile Train," a worldwide charitable organisation, to conduct over 200 free operations this year, the hospital's Managing Director, Dr. K.S. Shekar, said here on Monday.

He told presspersons that the hospital had formed a public charitable trust called the Cleft Lip and Palate Care Trust to avail assistance from The Smile Train.

He appealed to all like-minded philantrophic organisations and individuals to identify patients who needed such surgery and direct them to the Bangalore Hospital for treatment. The trust had also invited plastic surgeons from Bangalore to make their poor patients avail of the facility. "Anybody (both children and adults) who have not been operated before, and cannot afford the cost of an operation can walk into the hospital and be treated," he said.

Problems relating to cleft lips and palates are enormous. One in 800 to 900 live births could have clefts of lip or palate, but most of these unfortunate patients did not get proper medical attention for want of expertise or for economic reasons, Dr. Shekar explained.

The Smile Train was founded by a U.S.-based IT tycoon, Mr. Charles Wang, to help poor patients. The organisation collected donations worldwide and allotted them to institutions that offerred free service to cleft-lip and palate patients. The Advisory Committee of the Smile Train had many world figures that included the former U.S. President, Mr. George Bush, Mr. Bill Gates of Microsoft and Mr. Colin Powell (Secretary of State for Defence).

Asserting that the facility was available to poor and deserving patients only, he said: "Just because the treatment is free, it doesn't mean that these patients will be treated differently from those who pay for such services."

The Smile Train, that started with giving financial assistance in China two years ago, has supported over 8,000 operations. The organisation came to India last year, and a few institutions have been recognised for assistance by the Smile Train, which include CMC in Ludhiana, KEM Hospital in Bombay, Ramchandra Medical College in Chennai, KLE Hospital in Belgaum, Mission Hospital, Thrissur, and the Bangalore Hospital.

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