Over three days last week in a Salt Lake hospital, 65 children got a congenital disorder rectified through surgical intervention and received the gift of a smile without drawing negative attention. On top of it, their parents, mostly from underprivileged backgrounds, did not even have to pay.
Techno India Dama Hospital, in collaboration with Mission Smile and Muthoot Pappachan Foundation, conducted a surgical camp, providing free cleft surgeries for kids and young adults born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities, from June 26 to 30.
“Our journey started in 2003. We have screened 70,000 children and done 46,000 surgeries across India, including 7,000 surgeries in Bengal. If a broken leg is repaired, the patient is happy. But if a cleft lip or palate is repaired and the child can go to school, the entire family is happy,” said Conrad Dennis, the CEO of Mission Smile.
Mission Smile has three modes of delivery. “First there are mission centres, like the one at Techno India Dama, where a medical team comes in voluntarily from near and far and 50-60 surgeries take place over five days. The second is our own hospital in Guwahati, operating with support of the government on a PPP model, where surgeries take place five days a week round the year. Thirdly, there are 16 hospitals across India with which agreements have been signed to run outreach centres where screenings take place. Every year, 35,000 cleft children are born and there is a huge backlog, especially after the pandemic period when surgeries did not take place for two years,” Dennis added.
Other than Techno India Dama in Calcutta, Mission Smile has an arrangement with Hiramoni Memorial Hospital in Krishnanagar. “About 250 kids are born in every district with cleft lips. Most districts do not have any treatment facility. We get cases even from Alipurduar,” he pointed out.
“Doctors come from different hospitals and health systems and disciplines to deliver a service free of cost. We are using this programme not only to do surgeries but also to train the next generation of surgeons, who are now assisting us,” said plastic surgeon Dr Manish Mukul Ghosh.
Sometimes parents in remote areas are wary of coming for the operation and need to be convinced. “The CSR arm of Muthoot Foundation stays in touch with them through the year,” Dennis said.
Thanks to the Guwahati hospital, in Assam all children with cleft lips get operated when they are under a year of age. “These operations should be done when the child is under one year old. If a child is left unoperated till the age of two, he can neither talk nor eat properly. One in 10 such children die before their first birthday,” the surgeon said.
Techno India Dama Hospital medical director Dr Sourav Ghosh said the hospital had been functioning as an outreach centre for Mission Smile since 2023. “Last year, we did 52 surgeries at the first camp. The rest of the year we run as an outreach centre. Every month, we get 10-12 cases,” he said.
A team of medical volunteers, comprising plastic surgeon, oral and maxillofacial surgeon, anaesthetist, paediatrician, dentist, speech language pathologist and nurses screened 81 patients and cleared 65 for surgery. Each surgery took around one and half to two hours and the bill came to Rs 50,000, which was picked up by the foundation. The hospital offered its facilities free while the team volunteered for the cause.
“We want to make Bengal a cleft-free state,” said Techno India Group co-chairperson Manoshi Roychowdhury.