Smile Train Stories

Quezon City, Philippines — Yesterday, Smile Train announced our 750,000th free cleft surgery since our founding in 1999. Jhoanna Galut was chosen to represent this amazing “smilestone.” This is her story.

As Jhoanna Galut began to approach her 6th birthday, she had little to celebrate. The 4th of 6 children born to a poor family living off $2 a day, Jhoanna suffered from a unilateral cleft lip as well as asthma. Her asthma turned out to be almost as much of a curse as her cleft lip.

Jhoanna’ asthma and very thin frame caused her to fail to pass the medical examination during a free cleft surgery camp organized by an army unit. The cancellation of her surgery at the camp, sent her family into despair. Things only got worse when she got older and local kids began to make fun of her cleft. Perhaps saddest of all, it wasn’t just school kids who made fun of Jhoanna — her mother frequently got into fights with her neighbors over Jhoanna’s cleft.

One day, Jhoanna’s mother brought her youngest child to the hospital for a check up and found literature about Smile Train’s free cleft surgery program at Philippine Band of Mercy. Her hope returned, and when they arrived home, they packed their backs immediately.

Jhoanna had grown strong enough to pass the medical examination and finally received free cleft lip surgery at the hands of Dr. Gilbert Esquejo of Philippine Band of Mercy. With her bright new smile, Jhoana is anxiously looking forward to school and hopes to one day become a teacher.

Lahore, Pakistan — Last week, Smile Train proudly welcomed our newest partner hospital, Arif Memorial Teaching Hospital. Led by Prof. Muhammad Afzal Sheikh and Dr. Farrukh Mahmood, the Arif Memorial team kicked off the start of our partnership in grand fashion: performing 40 free cleft surgeries in their first 3 days!

This remarkable start shows the team’s skills, dedication and commitment to helping children with cleft and the need for our programs in the area. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Arif Memorial to provide free cleft lip and palate surgery and related care to desperate children.

Kathmandu, Nepal — Today’s blog was written by Zachary Shuster, Program Associate.

Yesterday, Smile Train was deeply saddened to hear of the untimely passing of Dr. Prashant Shrestha, a Smile Train partner surgeon working at B&B Hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal.

From the inception of his hospital’s partnership with Smile Train in 2006, Dr. Prashant worked tirelessly to provide free cleft surgery to the children of Nepal. He took Smile Train’s commitment to reach every child with a cleft to heart, organizing outreach camps that stretched into the remotest parts of the country. The members of his outreach team hiked for days at a time to reach children in less-trafficked areas and bring them back to Kathmandu for free cleft surgery.

Just last month, I had the opportunity to visit Dr. Prashant and his team in Kathmandu. I was invigorated by their unwavering commitment to Smile Train’s mission, which they identified with strongly and adopted as their own. Dr. Prashant was the embodiment of the Smile Train ideal: a highly skilled and professional surgeon who saw Smile Train partnership as an opportunity to give back to some of the least fortunate people in his country. He provided free cleft surgery to over 1,500 people in only five years. His team strived to provide comprehensive cleft care, including speech therapy and emotional outreach. The patients I saw during my visit were truly grateful; the look of gratitude in the eyes of the parents of younger patients was unmistakable and deeply affecting.

Dr. Prashant took great pride in all that he did for Smile Train, and we are tremendously sorry to lose him. Our deepest condolences go out to Dr. Prashant’s family and to everyone whose life he touched. His life will serve as a reminder of the importance of diligent and purposeful work.

Zachary Shuster, Program Associate, Smile Train

New York, NY — In honor of International Women’s Day, we decided to focus the spotlight on two of our leading women in the field, surgeons Sister Dr. Najjuka Liliana Lucy Gerardine and Dr. Jyotsna Murthy. These two remarkable surgeons have dedicated their lives to giving others a second chance at life and are a constant inspiration to our Smile Train community.

Sister Dr. Najjuka Liliana Lucy Gerardine

A Smile Train partner since 2008, Sister Dr. Najjuka, based at Surgical Centre Smile Train Mbarara in Uganda, is a leading force in delivering cleft care throughout Africa. Sister Dr. Najjuka has provided over 650 Smile Train sponsored cleft surgeries on a continent where surgery is a male dominated field.

She is both student and teacher; never passing up an opportunity to improve her surgical skills and organizing cleft missions focused on teaching more local doctors, both men and women, throughout Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and all of East Africa. She is currently in Burundi teaching a perspective local surgeon the proper techniques to one day become a Smile Train partner.

Dr. Jyotsna Murthy

More than a decade after her first Smile Train surgery in 2001, Dr. Jyotsna Murthy MS, M Ch, DNB has provided over 5,000 free cleft lip and palate surgeries. Not to mention all of the surgeons that she has trained and instructed as a professor at Sri Ramachandra University and on countless medical/training missions, including Sister Dr. Najjuka.

Her generosity and compassion know no bounds as she has spearheaded numerous initiatives in India for surgical care and has been integral in Smile Train’s development of new local partners. She is dedicated to not only repairing clefts, but understanding them as well and is involved in many research projects on the psychosocial problems that can develop from unrepaired clefts and the genetic study of how clefts form.

Campinas, Brazil – Smile Train would like to congratulate SOBRAPAR Hospital on being selected amongst the top 10 of 630 hospitals in Sao Paulo state. A Smile Train partner since 2000, SOBRAPAR was selected as one of the best hospitals after a patient survey of over 200,000 participants throughout Brazil’s largest state.

SOBRAPAR won this great honor for its excellent medical care, the quality of its facilities, and the outstanding treatment of its patients and their families. Over 1,300 children born with cleft lip and palate have been given new lives through Smile Train’s partnership with SOBRAPAR and this prestigious designation shows that the staff of the hospital remain dedicated to providing top quality cleft care. The hospital continues to be a key leader for Smile Train in South America, producing some of the finest cleft professionals in the world out of its training programs and researching how best to fully care for children born with cleft lip and palate.

Please join us in extending our congratulations and thanks to SOBRAPAR Hospital and all of the remarkable, surgeons, doctors, nurses, administrators, and staff for this prestigious recognition and their commitment to their patients and making sure every child can smile.

Kumasi, Ghana – Last week, nearly 300 cleft care providers from across Africa met to exchange ideas and learn about the latest in cleft care at the 4th Annual Pan African Association of Cleft Lip & Palate (PAACLIP) Scientific Conference. With the support of Smile Train and the dream of an association of local African partners working together to provide and improve quality cleft care throughout the continent, PAACLIP was started in 2007 with the help of Smile Train Medical Advisory Board member and world-renowned speech pathologist Dr. Linda D’Antonio.

In developing countries, one of the hardest tasks for Smile Train partners is combating the myths and superstitions that surround cleft lips and palates: proper awareness is even hard in the U.S. where July is National Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness month. Creating proper awareness and discrediting superstitions has proven especially difficult in remote parts of Africa that have suffered from years and even decades of conflict. Luckily, through the dedicated efforts of Smile Train and PAACLIP members, awareness that clefts are repairable birth defects, not evil omens or curses from God, is on the rise and we are seeing more and more patients arrive at Smile Train partner hospitals each year.

The conference focused on strategies and opportunities to increase access to cleft lip and palate surgery and related services in Africa. As a whole, Africa has a shortage of qualified surgeons to provide cleft lip and palate surgery, placing innovative strategies for increasing the reach of current Smile Train partners and comprehensive training for new partners at the top of Smile Train’s priorities in Africa. PAACLIP has proven to be a fundamental building block to Smile Train’s expansion in Africa with a strong dedication to increased sustainability.

Let us solve African problems with us Africans.”

- Dr. Asrat Mengiste, newly appointed President of PAACLIP

Highlights of the conference include lectures from Smile Train Medical Advisory Board members Dr. Ethylin Wang Jabs on genetics and Dr. E. Heidi Jerome on anesthesia as well as Smile Train partners Dr. Adebola Adetokunbo (Nigeria), Dr. Jyotsna Murthy (India), and Dr. Roopa Nagarajan (India). Numerous Smile Train partners, hospital administrators, and leading professionals in the region presented best practices in follow up care in rural areas, delivery of speech services, outreach programs, and cleft awareness and community mobilization programs. The PAACLIP conference was a resounding success and was capped off by a tribute to Dr. D’Antonio for her efforts as well as the announcement of the new PAACLIP leadership, all of whom are Smile Train partners:

Dr. Asrat Mengiste – President (Ethiopia and Kenya)
Dr. Pius Agbernoku – Vice President (Ghana)
Dr. Meshach Onguti – Secretary General (Kenya)
Dr. Ashraf Emarah – Assistant Secretary General (Kenya)
Dr. Rose Alenyo – Treasurer (Uganda)
Dr. Peter Olaitan – Financial Secretary (Nigeria)
Dr. Edward Wayi – East African Representative (Tanzania)
Dr. Adebola Adetokunbo – West African Representative (Nigeria)
Dr. Saraiva Simao – South African Representative (Mozambique)
Dr. Emmanuel Crezoit – Francophone Representative
(Cote D’Ivoire)

New York, NY – On July 1, 2011, Smile Train officially started our new Fiscal Year eclipsing our previous record for the number of free, safe, high-quality cleft lip and palate surgeries that we provided in a year. Everyone here at Smile Train is happy to announce that through the amazing work of our partner hospitals, surgeons, and medical staff we have successfully supported 117,144 free cleft surgeries to desperate children throughout the world…that’s over 320 cleft surgeries a day!

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It is with profound sadness that Smile Train has learned of the death of Dr. D. Ralph Millard, Jr. in Miami, FL on 19th June 2011 just a few weeks after his 92nd birthday. An exceptional plastic surgeon, a great writer and an outstanding human being, Dr Millard will always be remembered for his profound contributions to the field of cleft care.

In the field, Dr. Millard is specifically acclaimed for the rotation-advancement technique which he pioneered for repair of cleft lips that remains by far the most widely used. His three volume Cleft Craft is an epic that has educated several generations of surgeons. He will also be remembered for his great wit, a wacky sense of humor and an artistic streak that came through in his etchings on the margins of his books. A true giant of a man. We salute his memory and may his soul rest in peace.

Dr. Millard graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1944, interned in pediatric surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital and obtained his plastic surgery training at Barnes Hospital, Washington, the Straith Clinic in Detroit and Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston, TX.

Dr. Millard was nominated as one of only 10 “Plastic Surgeons of the Millennium” by the members of the American Society of Plastic Surgery. He had been described as “the most brilliant and creative plastic surgeon we have… His work and publications speak for themselves.”

Dr. Millard’s obituary

The Dr. Ralph Millard Plastic Surgery Society & Education Foundation

Hyderabad, India – Coming all the way from Nigeria, Nkeiruka Obi (NK for short) our new Program Manager of West Africa, met her counterparts for the first time. Under the guidance of expert Smile Train partner Dr. Subodh (of Smile Pinki fame), NK witnessed a cleft examination at a special conference designed to bring together the international Smile Train team and set forth a structural plan for the coming years.

NK is responsible for bolstering our programs throughout Western Africa, a hard task considering the lack of trained surgeons and deeprooted superstitions in many of the countries she will be working in. NK remains undaunted in her task of growing Smile Train’s programs and is determined to make the most of her time in Hyderabad and learn more about the successful expansion of our Indian programs over the last decade and take their best practices back to Nigeria.

As NK pointed out in an email a few days onto the job, dismissing the myths and stigmas associated with clefts is the first step to making sure every child can smile.

 ”I just got back from the South West Region, and to my utmost, shock discovered that children with clefts are still being condemned to a lifetime of isolation and suffering in that part of the country, some even abandoned or killed. In fact, it is incredible.

On my way, the taxi driver was stopped by the local govt. ‘boys’ to produce his state driver’s licence…which of course was not available as we were coming from Lagos. After much pleading, they told the guy to pay N42000 before they can let us go. At that point, I had to step in.  I shared with them the mission of Smile Train  and gave them a copy of our flier. Immediately, one of them confessed that this was news to them as from where they are from the belief is that clefts are monsters or rabbits in human form that shouldn’t be allowed to live….fortunately one of them had a brother that had a cleft. With the revelation that a cleft can be corrected and now at no cost, I gave him the contact details of our partners in the SW.”

Thanks to an attempted bribery, of all things, one more patient whose community thought that he was a monster will be receiving surgery and a new life. You can be sure that he’ll be spreading this great news to everyone he can, helping us dispell the local superstitions and help even more patients. With NK’s help, we plan to greatly expand our programs throughout Africa and reach every child with a cleft.

Smile Train is dedicated to empowering local medical professionals by giving them as much access to resources and training as possible. One example is through Smile Train’s Medical Exchange Program – this program provides support to our local partners so they can invite specialists in cleft from around the world to provide one-on-one training in areas that they need most. These specialists can be surgeons, anesthesiologists, speech pathologists, audiologists, dentists or orthodontists, and Smile Train provides small travel stipends for these professionals to visit our partners and provide one-on-one training and assistance. One recent example of this program was written about in Audiology Online…

BHARTI KATBAMNA: Yes. I am a professor at Western Michigan University. I have been at Western since 1995 and teach primarily in the area of diagnostic audiology. My clinical work also involves neurodiagnostics – I see predominantly pediatric patients from the normal nursery or the neonatal intensive care unit or from the hematology/ oncology clinics from hospitals in the greater Kalamazoo area.

…

In my case, it was my colleague, Donna Oas, a retired speech-language pathologist, with expertise is cleft palate and lip, who made all the initial inquiries. She came to me with this book and said that she would like to go to India to do some charity work with the cleft team – since India is an English speaking country, she thought it would be the place of choice. India is a very large country and I was not familiar with almost any of the hospitals listed in the book, so we narrowed it down by selecting programs in big cities. She sent emails to several programs – most programs responded, but the most enthusiastic response came from Dr. Partha Sadhu, the plastic surgeon from the J. Watumull Global Hospital and Research Center in Mount Abu, located in the northwestern state of Rajasthan in India. As a Smile Train partner, Dr. Sadhu had hosted many visitors including ENTs and several speech-language pathologists from the U.K. and Sweden, so he was familiar with the process and that made everything very easy. Mt. Abu is a small hilltop community, but the hospital provides extensive services to the greater Rajasthan areas covering a 250-400 mile radius, serving people even from other states who must commute long distances to receive services in Mt. Abu.

So that is how the process began and I am not sure when in the process I seamlessly became Donna’s partner, but I did and it was fun to be a speech pathologist/audiologist team. It worked out beautifully and I am glad I went. It was a great opportunity to serve and learn; we saw 55 cases in a short span of seven days. They were very interesting cases – from cases that received repeat repairs due to poor repair work elsewhere, but handled skillfully by Dr. Sadhu, to new cases that received care from Dr. Sadhu from the beginning.

Read the full interview »