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Schneider Children’s Volunteers Surgeries in India in Children with Cleft Palate

	Under the auspices of the American charitable association, Smile Train, a party of two plastic surgeons from Schneider Children’s conducted plastic surgeries over a period of two weeks in poor children born with cleft lip and palate and gave them a chance of a new life. The medical delegation included Dr. Dean Ad-El, Director of the Department of Plastic Surgery at Beilinson and Schneider Children’s Hospitals, and Dr. Eyal Kalish, specialist in Plastic Surgery at Schneider Children’s.
Cleft lip and palate is a common problem in developing countries. This congenital defect affects millions of children around the world who have difficulty eating and talking properly, integrating in school or work and suffer from shame and social isolation. Moreover, in countries such as India, cleft palate is deemed a “curse” and most of the children born with this defect are abandoned after birth. Each infant born with a cleft palate in developing countries receives a name which means “cursed by God”.
A solution to this common defect is surgery which takes about two hours and which can cost up to $250 in India. Surgery can resolve children’s difficulties and provide them with the hope of a new and improved quality of life. Many of these children are born to poor families and in areas where the average day’s salary is $2, and thus are unable to support the costs of this surgery.
According to Dr. Dean Ad-El, “seeing children with cleft palate in the special setting of India was both a personal and professional experience. Their culture is fascinating and performing the operations was a professional challenge and very rewarding.”

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