A team of medical volunteers will perform life-changing surgeries on 30 people born with cleft lips or palates at the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha at the weekend.
The volunteers are coming from all over the country as part of a partnership between the Eastern Cape department of health and Operation Smile SA.
This will be the second of these surgeries in the Eastern Cape since the end of Covid-19.
In 2022, 24 people received the surgeries at the same hospital.
The procedure has to be administered within the first 18 months of a child’s life.
The health department and Operation Smile SA signed a memorandum of understanding in 2022, paving the way for more corrective surgeries.
Such partnerships help improve the quality of life and address health complications
Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth said the department was happy that more lives would be transformed at the weekend.
“We are grateful for the partnership with Operation Smile SA,” she said.
“We are looking forward to having the superhero volunteers transform our people’s lives again.
“Such partnerships help improve the quality of life and address health complications.
“We are looking forward to having the medical volunteers who operate under the banner of Operation Smile SA returning to the Eastern Cape to operate on so many people.
“Without surgery, children with cleft lips or palates face serious health and developmental challenges, and are likely to suffer emotional abuse and social isolation.”
Fiola Lujabe, programme manager at Operation Smile SA, stressed the importance of providing timely intervention for those with cleft lips or palates.
She said early surgery was crucial to minimise the potential for speech and social difficulties.
“The longer children born with clefts must await surgery, the more severe their potential health, developmental and psychological complications become.
“The encouraging news is that cleft conditions can often be surgically corrected in a remarkably brief 45-minute procedure when performed by a proficient medical team.”
In 2022, two-year-old Ntlelo, born with a cleft lip and palate, was among the 23 children and one adult who received surgery.
At the time of Ntlelo’s birth, her mother, Mhlamunye, was shocked and heartbroken as she did not know anything about the anomaly.
“I had never seen or heard of such a thing,” she said.
“I didn’t know what to do or who to talk to. People in my community laughed at me and it hurt.”
Mhlamunye will bring Ntlelo to the hospital again this year for surgery to repair her cleft palate, which is critical to support her speech development.
Operation Smile’s dedicated team of volunteers consists of highly specialised professionals, including plastic and reconstructive surgeons, anaesthesiologists, paediatricians, nurses, dentists, speech therapists and psychosocial experts.
The Operation Smile team will collaborate with the medical staff at Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital.
Their joint efforts will commence on Friday with a comprehensive patient screening.
The surgical procedures will be carried out on Saturday and Sunday.
Each young patient, accompanied by his or her parent or guardian, will receive the highest standard of compassionate care, free of charge.
This comprehensive care package includes transport, accommodation, nourishment, medical assessments, surgeries and post-surgical evaluations, including speech and dental assessments.
During the surgical weekend, Operation Smile will run dental and speech therapy education and training workshops.
DispatchLIVE
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