 Fresh hope for cleft lip cases
The US-based Smile Train, a leading non-profitable organisation committed to eradicating cleft lip/palate problem, has recognised the Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre (MMHRC) in Madurai as a centre of excellence and donated Rs 2 crore.
The amount will be used for setting up a regional Smile Train centre at MMHRC to train plastic surgeons and paramedical staff and providing facilities for rund-the-clock surgeries as per American standards, said MMHRC chairman N
Sethuraman.
Sethuraman said a majority of children with cleft lip were born in poor families and the defect could be set right by surgery.
Facilities at MMHRC include a special operation theatre, post-operative ward, a Smile Train library and an info-tech centre, video conferencing and research facilities, an international training centre and a mobile Smile Train van and speech therapy. The services would be as per ISO 9001:2000 standards.
It would be manned by medical and para-medical professionals to meet the comprehensive requirement of persons suffering from cleft lip/palate with the capacity to provide surgeries for 1,000 beneficiaries a year, he said.
The centre would provide counselling, free accommodation, medicines, food, speech therapy, and awareness programme at the grassroots-level on prevention and after-care. It would also provide training for surgeons from all over the world.
The Smile Van was launched at a simple function recently.
The MMHRC, in partnership with Smile Train, had already provided free surgeries to 2,467 children and the new centre would help expand its services.
(Agencies)
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