Salvador, Brazil—Smile Train staff member Caity Roarke recently visited Hospital Santo Antonio a Smile Train partner hospital in Salvador, Brazil. While there Caity was able to meet Bianca and observed the quality cleft care provided to this young patient. She shares her experience below.
Bianca Lima received her first surgery to repair her cleft lip at Hospital Santo Antonio in Salvador, Brazil, on July 10, 2013. When I met her last month, she had just turned four and was back at the hospital for a series of aftercare visits. In one day and in one building, she was cared for by a social worker, a speech therapist, an orthodontist, her surgeon and a psychologist.
Every day Hospital Santo Antonio sees patients for everything from pre-screening for surgery, to speech therapy and orthodontics. The facilities at the hospital allow for continuous and accessible after care for past patients as well as those who received surgery at another hospital. Their main waiting area is a circular ‘one-stop-shop’ where patients can see as many as eight different practitioners all in one day. This is especially important to those patients, like Bianca, who have to travel miles and miles in order to see these doctors and get the appropriate care after their cleft surgery.
The last time Bianca was at the hospital she had come for her Smile Train surgery. Before the surgery she never spoke. On the day I met her, she met with a speech therapist to come up with a plan to expand her language. Bianca then met with a psychologist to help her become more comfortable engaging with others.
While she is still a bit shy about speaking, she instantly lit up around the other children in the waiting room and spent the entire afternoon playing games and interacting with everyone around her, laughing and smiling the whole time.Bianca is just one of the many examples of how essential aftercare can be and what a profound effect it can have on children’s lives beyond one surgery.