Smile Train Stories

Sikkim, India — Most people dread the prospect of having work interrupt their vacations, but not Smile Train partner Dr. Parthapratim Gupta.

He prefers to make miracles happen while he’s on vacation.

Dr. Gupta was vacationing in the Himalayas for some much needed rest when all of a sudden a family excitedly ran up to him. At first he wasn’t sure what was going on, but how could the family forget the man who changed their daughter’s life forever? Dr. Gupta had performed their daughter’s cleft lip surgery 12 years ago!

During that time, Dr. Gupta became a Smile Train partner and provided more than 1,600 free cleft surgeries, while their daughter went on to go to school and lead a normal life. The family happily shared their story and gave their deepest thanks, but they had one more favor to ask — they knew of a 7-month-old boy with a cleft lip and palate.

They brought Dr. Gupta to meet little Niloy and his family. Niloy’s father had a temporary job earning about $2 a day, and never thought he’d be able to get his son’s cleft repaired. Dr. Gupta explained about Smile Train and arranged for transportation to his hospital for Niloy and his mother. With Niloy’s mother patiently waiting, Dr. Gupta repaired his cleft lip and palate. Niloy was a bit groggy coming out of the anesthesia, but a few days later, he was heading home with a bright new smile.

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.

Chandigarh, India — Movies and TV shows often joke about husbands forgetting their wedding anniversaries and trying to make up for it at the last minute, but at Smile Train partner Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, at least one couple will never forget.

Last year, when the PGIMER staff finished screening a 6-month-old boy with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, they happily told the parents that the surgery was set for the next day. When the parents told them that the next day happened to be their anniversary, the staff offered to reschedule. However, the parents insisted that the best anniversary present would be the chance for a normal life for their son. The surgery went ahead as planned and both his cleft lip and palate were fully repaired. Rather than exchanging gifts or a special dinner, they spent their anniversary in the children’s ward at their baby’s side.

They returned to the hospital on their anniversary again this year with a gift for the hospital staff — a smiling one-and-a-half-year-old.

Amritsar, Punjab, India — 55 years is a long time to wait for any surgery, let alone for one that could repair your cleft. Mohan Singh knows that all too well.

When he was born with a cleft lip, Mohan’s family took him to a local baba, an elder wise-man, to seek out help. The baba told them to not have Mohan’s lip operated upon — that it was likely due to past sins in another life. He also instructed the family that Mohan should never get married. The superstitions that this baba instilled upon the family, robbed Mohan of a normal life. When they grew up, his five brothers married and raised families, while Mohan was forbidden to do the same. When a social worker told him about Smile Train, he was overjoyed with the possibility, but saddened by all that he had missed in life.

A few days later, Dr. Ravi Mahajan of Amandeep Hospital, repaired Mohan’s cleft lip. After the surgery, Dr. Mahajan’s team asked Mohan if he would participate in a press conference on the dangers of superstitions. He gladly accepted so that others would be able to have their surgery at a young age and not have to go through the pain and isolation that he had: Mohan’s gift to others with cleft as he starts his life anew.

Derhadun, India — After a long day’s work, Mr. Amarjeet Singh Narwal finally lay asleep on a cold, peaceful night. Around 3a.m., he was startled awake by a strange wailing outside. He threw on a coat and opened the door, where he found an infant wrapped in a dirty, tattered piece of cloth. He cradled the baby in his arms, assuming that the boy’s parents had abandoned their son at his door due to his cleft lip and palate.

Amarjeet and his wife brought Krishna, as they named him, to Jankalayan Samiti, a local NGO, to see if they could help. The group provided the Narwals with food and clothes for the baby. The difficulty of feeding little Krishna left him underweight and suffering from a repeated cough and fever. Despite the help they received, when they learned that Krishna would also suffer from speech difficulties on top of his deformity, they feared that his young life and future would be full of despair and torment.

One day, the Himalayan Institute’s Smile Train team reached Panipat for a health camp. The members of Jankalyan Samiti contacted the team about the Narwals and Krishna’s treatment in great detail, providing a ray of hope. Amarjeet soon brought his 5-month-old son to Smile Train partner Himalayan Hospital (known locally as Jolly Grant Hospital). Further examinations at the hospital revealed along with a cleft lip and palate, Krishna also suffered from malnutrition and a skin infection. Seeing Krishna’s condition, the Smile Train team started the necessary antibiotic treatment and taught the Narwals proper feeding techniques, basic health care, and nutrition.

The results of the treatment were fantastic and Krishna was soon ready for his free surgery. To top it all off, surgeon Dr. Sanjay Dvivedi convinced the management of the Himalayan Institute to financially support Krishna after his treatment. Dr. Dvivedi repaired Krishna’s cleft lip and nose free of charge, giving him a bright new smile. Krishna was soon discharged from the hospital with his relieved family and has been scheduled for free cleft palate surgery when he is 9 months old. Thanks to the expert Smile Train team at Himalayan Institute, the Narwals can look forward to a bright future for their new son.

Patna, Bihar, India — Everyday, thanks to our donors, Smile Train is able to change the lives of over 300 patients and their families. The translated stories below come directly from the parents of recent patients at Smile Train partner Rabia Basri Hospitals Pvt. Ltd.. Thank you to everyone who helps make changes like these happen everyday.

Kundan as told by his father:

We were shocked at the birth of my son Kundan. Our grief was made worse because my mother refused to see him as her grandson. She said that he was the product of my past sins. As he got older, the kids in my village refused to play with him, saying that he was a dirty, evil boy. Kundan slowly started realizing that he was not like other kids. My wife and eventually my mother had accepted this as our fate. When we came to know about Smile Train and Rabia Basri Hospital, Patna, I decided to save money to get him to the hospital. There was stiff resistance in the family as it was presumed that God created him like this for a reason. I was adamant and refused to accept that he should suffer for things he hadn’t done. My wife and mother are very happy now. It is a new beginning for my son and I promise to send him to school and help give him a respectable position in society.”

Seema as told by her mother:

We are a very poor family. When my daughter Seema was born, instead of being happy, we were filled with sorrow after seeing her cleft lip. Sometimes, I started thinking of abandoning her to some ashram or at temple. I was worried about how she would get married or have a family when she grew up. My agony was further aggravated by village folks with the comments like these kinds of children bring bad fortune to the family. But being her mother, I couldn’t bare to do it and decided to look after her and kept on praying about her well-being. One fine day, a field officer from Rabia Basri Hospital came to our village and found us. I was very happy that God has listened to me. After the operation, I am very happy that my daughter will lead a normal life. Thank you all who made it possible.”

Sid Kumar as told by his father, Rajnish Kumar:

When my son was born ,I was working in Gujarat. My father had a sweet shop in our village. When he got the news of the birth of my son he was so happy that he distributed all of the candy in the shop to everyone who was passing through that road. We he came to know the deformity of cleft lip in my son, he almost fainted. I was given the news of Sid’s birth but his cleft lip was kept secret from me. When I saved enough money to return home to see my son for the first time, I was shocked. Meanwhile, there was a camp of Rabia Basri hospital and Smile Train in Gopalganj that a neighbor knew of. I got the information and brought my son for the operation right away. After the operation, our family life has totally changed. I pray my son becomes a doctor so that he can also help those in need.”

Varanasi, India – Paul Peabody, acclaimed violinist with the New York City Ballet and part of the Grammy winning orchestra that scored “Titanic,” just returned from an unforgettable journey providing the gift of music throughout India. A long time Smile Train supporter, Paul enjoyed his second tour of Smile Train India partner hospitals, playing fiddle for patients, families, doctors, and staff.

He spent most of his five weeks alongside Smile Train partners Dr. Sunil Richardson, Dr. Jyostna Murthy, and Dr. Subodh Singh. Paul comforted patients with a myriad of music from classical to traditional Hindi songs, but the requests really came pouring in when staff would find out that he played an integral role in the music for “Titanic.” Paul primarily rotated between the waiting room and the recovery room to calm the fears of patients and parents before surgery and use the healing powers of music to aid in their recovery. Towards the end of his trip, Paul was even asked to play for the doctors inside the OR.

When Dr. Sunil Richardson asked if I would play [in the OR], I gave a stricken look and I made him promise me that there was no way that my sounds could interfere at all with anyone’s concentration! He told me that many surgeons actually play classical music to help them concentrate. In the OR everything worked like clockwork: extremely peaceful.”

Children who had never heard, let alone seen, a violin before, found themselves glued to their seats as the music washed over them. Whether it was playing Hindi folk songs to comfort crying patients, or playing some of the pop songs he worked on for Michael Jackson and Madonna, Paul’s talents, enthusiasm, and kindness revered him to everyone he met.

His visit coincided with India’s Independence Day, August 15, where he joined in the celebration by playing for and assisting in Dr. Singh’s tree planting, Green Independence Day Initiative.

Paul has recently returned to New York and is already getting ready to plan his trip next year.

On May 26th, one of Smile Train’s oldest and highest performing partner hospitals, G. S. Memorial Plastic Surgery Hospital in Varanasi, India, reached a new milestone — 20,000 Smile Train sponsored free cleft surgeries. Under the leadership of Dr. Subodh Kumar Singh, G. S. Memorial is one of the largest cleft centers in the world and has been a Smile Train partner since April 2004. Dr. Subodh and his staff are also featured in the 2008 Academy Award®-winning Documentary, Smile Pinki.

The 20,000th patient, Baby, is an 8-month-old girl born with both a cleft lip and palate. She was originally screened by Dr. Subodh at a camp in Daltonganj, Jharkhand when she was 13 days old, but was not fit for her surgery scheduled in December. She returned on May 20th for her surgery and became G.S. Memorial’s 20,000th patient.

UPDATE: Dr. Subodh just sent more pictures from the celebration for all of the day’s patients. Please check out the latest additions to the gallery below.

Varanasi, India - Pinki Sonkar, star of the Academy Award® winning film Smile Pinki, traveled with her father for days to receive free cleft lip surgery. After five years of suffering and ostracization, Pinki was given a new life by Dr. Subodh Singh thanks to Smile Train donors. Pinki traveld to Hollywood alongside, her father, Dr. Subodh , and the film’s director Megan Mylan to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Short. While many girls and boys dream of winning famous movie awards, Pinki only dreamed of going to school and living a normal life. Who says dreams can’t come true?

Pinki’s life has changed dramatically since her surgery: she’s enrolled in school, making friends, and even learning English. Please take a few minutes and watch this clip to see the power a simple surgery can have on an entire family.

We also recently received a surprise visit from the other star of the film, Ghutaru Chauhan. Ghutaru returned to G.S. Memorial Hospital where he recieved his free cleft palate surgery years ago in order to meet with one of the new speech pathologists. Ghutaru is taking his studies on wholeheartedly and even has a tutor to make sure he is caught up with other kids his age. Ghutaru’s cleft palate caused great difficulty with his speech and, like many children who have their cleft palates repaired, he has had to retrain himself to speak properly. He met again with Dr. Subodh and his team as part of a Smile Train pilot initiative for speech pathology, which we hope to be able to bring to all of our partner hospitals. With the help of the speech pathologists, his tutor will be incorporating speech lessons into Ghutaru’s daily activities so that he will be speaking crisply and sharply with ease, like a normal child. When he was asked what he wanted to be when he grows up, Ghutaru didn’t hesitate – he looked right at Dr. Subodh and said, “a doctor.”

For those that haven’t seen the film, request your free copy of Smile Pinki today!

Every day, with the help of our donors, Smile Train creates news smiles and success stories for more than 300 children just like Pinki and Ghutaru.

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 »