Tamparuli girl recovering after corrective surgery for cleft lip
KOTA KINABALU: Twoyear-old Allysia Zeno was born with a cleft lip and would have grown up in that condition if not for the concern of her father’s colleagues at the Monfort Youth Training Centre in Kinarut.
Led by the centre’s Human Resource and Admin manager Helena Kwan, they initiated a process to get corrective surgery for Allysia’s cleft lip and got in touch with The Cleft Lip and Palate Association (CLAPAS) for assistance.
Last month, Allysia underwent a corrective surgery sponsored by CLAPAS which was performed by plastic surgeon Dr Charles Lee.
Dr Charles who was met after a review on Allysia, said that the toddler had a unilateral cleft lip.
“Surgery was about two and a half hours. It involved a full cleft lip and full nose repair. Fortunately, this child was born with just a cleft lip, no cleft pallet. Her recovery progress is good,” he said.
According to Dr Charles, worldwide statistics showed that one in 700 children are born with a corrective condition called the cleft condition.
He stressed that corrective surgery for cleft lip should be done when the child is three months old.
“Cleft lip should be operated at the age of three months. But because of circumstances this child waited for two years,” he said, adding that corrective surgery is in the form of speech, hearing and dentition.
He explained that the hearing of a child with cleft lip is affected because of glue ears where very thick liquid forms inside the ear canals.
“The children cannot hear and when they can’t hear, they can’t speak. You can call the child but it will not respond so the speech in these children in very often delayed because they do not have the right hearing capacity.
“Hearing assessment starts at the time of birth, every cleft child should have a hearing assessment at the time of birth because we do not know how much of the hearing canal is also default,” said Dr Charles.
Please get your child born with a cleft condition assessed early, he advised parents.
Meanwhile Allysia’s mother, Wati Lunsin is grateful to her husband’s colleagues, CLAPAS and Dr Charles for helping her daughter get a better quality of life.
The couple who resides in Tamparuli, have three other children aged between eight and four. Allysia is the youngest and only girl among her siblings.
“The cost of the surgery was sponsored by CLAPAS and we are very thankful that it did this for Allysia,” she said.