One by one, they walk in the door, some smiling, some crying, some thankful, some frightened. They all have one thing in common: the need for help. One thing they don't have in common are similar disabilities.
After visiting the clinic, I researched the kind of work the doctors and volunteers do to help these children achieve a better quality of life. In 2006 the clinic offered it's services to over 2000 Mexican children and infants. Within those children there were 35 children needing cleft palate surgery.
Cleft palate occurs once every 600-800 births and is able to be fixed at birth with minor physical evidence a cleft palate was actually there. The children at St. Andrew's never got the chance to have the surgery at birth, so those who aren't infants have to go through a much more grueling process in order for their cleft palates to be fixed.
Symptoms of Cleft Palate are distinctive facial deformities, speech pronunciation and ability, and feeding problems (mainly for infants).
Some cleft palates are more severe than others, and the size of the cleft does not determine this. The location of the cleft indicates the long term impacts, such as the effect on speech.
Cleft palates are genetic but can also be caused by environmental factors. (More research is being done to connect these two).
Other Cleft Palate nonprofits:
Operation Smile
Cleft Palate Foundation
Watch a video about a young girl in Albequerqe whose cleft palate was able to be fixed at birth (many pictures of cleft palates in the video):
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