Free surgery for kids with facial deformities starts today

CEBU, Philippines - Over 200 children with cleft lips, cleft palate and other facial deformities will undergo free reconstructive surgery as Operation Smile Medical Mission Cebu starts today until the next four days at the Adventist Hospital (formerly Miller Hospital).

“We will continue this mission until we eradicate all these kinds of deformities. We will never stop helping. To all our volunteers, thank you for taking part on this worthy endeavor,” said Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung, chairperson of MSY Charitable Foundation Inc., in her speech during the welcome dinner for volunteer doctors at Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu on Friday night.

The volunteer doctors are composed of pediatricians and surgeons, among others, who came all the way to Cebu from the different parts of the world to join the medical mission.

“It is a great privilege to be here. It is my fourth time to join this mission in Cebu and we will continue to help children with facial deformities transform their lives,” said Dr. Ricardo Barros, a pediatrician from Brazil.

Barros said children with cleft lips and cleft palate is common in his country with a prevalence rate of one in every 600 children.

He said that based on scientific studies, children with such deformities normally suffered deficiency of folic acid and other essential vitamins and minerals while they were still in their mother’s womb.

“It is very important that pregnant women should take the needed vitamins especially folic acid,” Barros said.

Oral cleft is among the top 12 congenital defects in the country and a leading cause of infant mortality.

An estimated one in every 500 Filipinos or a total of  4,000 Filipino babies born in a year is afflicted with either a cleft lip of a cleft palate or both. Because of the hole in their lips and the roof of their mouth, they are susceptible to various infections.

Data gathered by the Operation Smile showed that 10 percent or about 400 of cleft-afflicted children die before reaching their first birthday and 12 percent or 480 do not live past the age of five.

Ramona “Monette” Aliño, executive director of the mission, said that they initially targeted to operate 150 children but as of June 7, the figure already reached 225.

“We will try our best effort to have all of these children undergo surgery,” said Aliño, adding that the youngest to undergo the surgery is an eight-month-old child.

One surgery would last at least 45 minutes or about one and a half hour.

“The surgery is expensive but we are grateful that through Operation Smile, less privileged children get this surgery for free,” Barros said, adding that it costs around $2,500 per surgery in Brazil.

Here in the Philippines, the surgery would cost at least P60,000 if done in a private clinic or hospital.

 Aliño said they have at least 200 volunteers for this mission both local and from abroad including the more than 20 employees of Radisson Blu Hotel, which, for the third time, partnered with the MSYCFI as part of their responsible business to give back to the community.

MSYCFI has been sponsoring the medical mission since 1998 and has already accommodated over 4,000 kids.

“I really pity children with these kinds of deformities because some of them no longer go to school for fear of being bullied. Many of the children who undergone surgeries in the past have now better lives, they are now studying. I will continue helping them build a better future through this mission,” Yeung added.  (FREEMAN)