Let us introduce you to Monali. When we met her, she was one-year-nine-months old. In most cases, parents can identify their child’s cleft deformity just after their birth. But Monali’s case was different.
At birth, her family did not notice her cleft palate deformity. The doctor too overlooked informing her condition to the parents! Thereby, Monali began experiencing problems in breathing and feeding. The fathomless difficulty and pain of the new-born continued for 12 long days. The parents could feel that their baby was experiencing difficulty but could not identify the reason. Unlike cleft lips, one can not identify ‘cleft palate deformities’ without a medical examination.
On the 13th day, the parents took her to a doctor. He failed to observe the baby’s cleft palate deformity. On their second visit to the doctor at the government hospital, the baby looked weak and was low on body weight. So, the doctor suspected anaemia. As an immediate measure, little Monali got transferred to ICU. But there was no respite to the baby’s suffering. Neither was there any relief for the parents! The doctors discharged Monali from the hospital. However, she had to be re-hospitalised after 17 days. Only after a 4-month-long hospital stay, little Monali improved under medical supervision! In this hospital, doctors diagnosed her cleft palate. Also, she gained weight by 5 kgs and was found fit and free of infections.
Next, the hospital referred the family to visit Mission Smile’s Guwahati Comprehensive Cleft Care Centre for cleft palate rectification surgery. Our doctors examined Monali. We found that her weight was still inappropriate for surgery. We referred Monali to GC4’s ‘Nutrition Program‘. There it took her a long time to increase her weight. Finally, the parent’s waiting paid off! During their 4th visit to GC4, at the time of our Difficult Cases Week at GC4, the Swedish doctors screened Monali and selected her for surgery. The international surgery team performed her surgery with the utmost care. The result was amazing! Monali got a rectified cleft palate. The happy family went back with their smiling child!
We will be following up on little Monali’s journey of recovery. We will be sharing the updates. Thanks to our donors and volunteers with whose help, we were able to help Monali!
You, too, can help us open another ‘Smile Story’ for someone like Monali.
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