Forty-six people born with cleft lip, cleft palate or both have a second chance to speak clearly and confidently, thanks to a specialised surgical procedure fully sponsored by Operation Smile Ghana, a medical charity.
Operation Smile Ghana is dedicated to providing life-changing surgical care for people with the condition.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are separations in the upper lip and mouth that occur while a fetus develops in the uterus.
It is estimated that in Ghana, out of every 1,200 births, one is a cleft lip or cleft palate or a combination of the two.
It is the third most common birth abnormality in the country.
Challenge
The beneficiary patients, whose ages range from under 10 to 32 years, are among a small subset of people who still struggle to speak clearly and pronounce certain words properly after having their cleft palates fixed.
For many of these patients, a nasal air leakage persists when they speak.
They, therefore, underwent the specialised speech surgery to improve their speech quality.
The surgeries were done by a team of specialists, comprising surgeons, anaesthetics, paediatricians, speech therapists, dentists and Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists from Operation Smile Sweden and Operation Smile Ghana at the Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital last week.
Correction
Speaking to journalists after three successful surgeries last Thursday morning, the Medical Director of Operation Smile Ghana, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah said across the country, over the past 15 years, they had noticed that only a small subset of children whose palates had been fixed had that problem, and it was important to repair them early while they were learning how to talk.
“We all know that speech is a very important part of communicating, and without adequate speech, how we understand each other, how people navigate their way through the educational system, through life, and society will be difficult, so it’s important that the problem is fixed,” he explained.
Causes
He added that data gathered by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) from its facilities indicated that every year, 400 children were born with clefts in the country. This data excludes those born outside the hospital environment.
Dr Ampomah mentioned the causes of cleft lips or cleft palate to include inheritance of abnormal genes that caused cleft deformities from parents; exposure to certain kinds of toxins or chemicals by mothers; certain medications like steroids, anti-seizure medications and vitamins A and B deficiencies.
He added that environmental factors could also be linked to cleft deformities, explaining that with most of the country’s water bodies polluted with heavy metals and chemicals, people risked giving birth to children with cleft deformities.
Misconceptions
He urged society to dispel misconceptions linking the condition to infidelity or curses,
He said that rather than stigmatising affected families, society should offer support and help them know that the condition was treatable.
“I’ve seen children who were born with clefts who are now medical doctors. So most of these children have normal intelligence, and they will develop normally if you support them,” he advised.
More support
With many children needing such surgeries, but families unable to raise money due to cost, the Board Chairman of Operation Smile Ghana, Subhi Accad, called on corporate Ghana, the public sector and individuals to join them in raising money to provide medical treatment for such children.
A Speech and Language Pathologist and a volunteer for Operation Smile Sweden, Liisi Raud Westberg, said that after the surgery, the chances of most patients’ ability to speak clearly were very good, especially when it was done before language development started.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh