Cleft lip patients to benefit from free surgeries at KNH

Operation Smile in partnership with the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) will this week conduct a free surgical programme targeting patients affected with congenital cleft lip.

Congenital cleft lip is among the most common birth defects, occurring in approximately one in every 500 Kenyan babies.

It is a defect where a child is born with their upper lip or mouth not completely formed during pregnancy and it has an opening.

 This defect affects children in many ways such as difficulty in feeding, which is the most immediate concerns after birth, where the child isn’t able to breastfeed because of the gap and this causes malnutrition, other challenges may include ear infections or even hearing loss, dental problems, speech difficulties and if not corrected, it may lead to pneumonia because they keep on aspirating.

 “Ideally, these surgeries are offered in hospitals at a cost of between Sh60,000 and Sh100,000 which is too costly for many Kenyans. With this partnership with KNH, the surgeries are offered for free to these patients, we are looking to restore their smiles and confidence,” Asaph Kinyanjui, country manager Operation Smiles, said.

He added that the organisation is looking to build the capacity of healthcare capacities so that the country has a bigger pool of providers who can offer this surgery.

 Operation Smile is at the forefront of ensuring that the birth defect is corrected, walking hand in hand with such patients in Kenya, they have an extra hand in making sure that these patients are well taken care of by bringing them from marginalised places and providing shelter for them.

 “Operation Smile has been a game changer for me, they have walked with me since day one, giving me hope and asking me to refer other patients I know. So when the time came they looked for me,” Karen Nyambura, a parent to one of the patients commented.

Poor backgrounds

 KNH, acting as the service provider, appreciates Operation Smile for funding these surgeries for children with this defect especially because most of them are from poor backgrounds and can’t afford the surgery.

“Most of these children are from out of Nairobi and they are unable to get treatment, so when Operation Smile approached us and offered to facilitate those who need these treatments, we were happy to help,” Kennedy Koech, Head of Department Dental Unit in KNH said.

 The program is set to go for three days, yesterday the patients were screened and checked if they are suitable for surgery then the surgeries will go from today till Friday.

 Operation Smiles is also looking, in the long term, to make KNH a training place for this surgery. Health care individuals could come for training and mentorships and go back to their counties where they will provide these surgeries rather than patients having to travel all the way to Nairobi to get this surgery.