154 Cleft, palate patients undergo free surgery
A medical team comprising 86 volunteers has undertaken a week-long surgery for 154 cleft and palate patients at the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho.
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It was sponsored by uniBank at the cost of $36,000 and operated under a charity known as “Operation Smile”. The charity group is involved in cleft surgery worldwide, and operates on patients based on high quality standards, in accordance with the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard or expectation.
Interventions
The intervention was the second the Volta Regional Hospital had been used as a venue to offer to affected people.
Addressing a press conference to round off its activities, the Director of Plastic Surgery at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Dr Opoku W. Ampomah, said one in 1000 births was detected with the cleft defect, and that the challenge facing the country was the lack of medical capacity to deal with the problem.
He said there was also a financial gap in addressing the challenges, adding that the intervention by uniBank was unique and appropriate in helping to tackle the problems.
The Director of Operation Smile in charge of Western and South Africa, Mrs Sabrina Ghiddi, announced that 781 people with cleft defects in the country had been treated since 2001.
She said affected persons were offered free transportation, free food and free medical care to enable them to undergo the surgery and to overcome the stigma associated with their condition.
Sponsorship
A manager of uniBANK, Mr Clifford Mettle, said the decision of the bank to join the crusade of Operation Smile was in line with the policy to associate itself with innovative ideas.
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He said the bank had collaborated with such innovative ideas at Korle Bu, Accra Psychiatric Hospital and several health institutions across the country.
A member of the National Media Commission, Dr Doris Yaa Dartey, who is a volunteer of the Operation Smile campaign, said it was necessary for society to acknowledge that there was a remedy for cleft and dismiss all forms of stigmatisation against affected people.
Testimony
In a testimony, a parent of a cleft patient from Techiman told the gathering that her daughter was delivered through Caesarean section at the Techiman Holy Family Hospital in 2011 and that the family was traumatised by her condition, because it was believed that her daughter was not a real human being.
Another parent said her daughter was to be killed on the orders of the family but through the assistance of Operation Smile, hope had been restored to the family.