Nora was born to smile
OFormer Selangor MB’s daughter shares experience as cleft-palate patient
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
WHEN Nora Abu Hassan was born, her young parents were unprepared to see their newborn with a facial anomaly, one that occurs in 3% of babies born worldwide.
Nora was born with a cleft lip and palate – a condition where the lip and palate are separated.
Her parents, however, stood by their eldest child, who underwent her first surgery at three months old.
“My extended family believed it was the will of God that I was born this way but my parents refused to accept that.
“They wanted me to lead a normal life,” she told theSun in a recent interview.
It was the begining of a journey that would see her undergoing 10 surgeries.
“The first was done to repair my cleft lip and palate,” she said.
Nora’s mother had to feed her with a pipette dropper until her first operation as an infant.
“My mother was only 23 then.
That was such a tender age,” Nora, herself a mother of three now, said.
Subsequent operations followed even as her father, the late Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abu Hassan Omar, continued his studies in the United Kingdom.
The family moved to the United Kingdom to be with him.
It was then that the second operation on Nora was done at the Royal Hull Infirmary Hospital. “Although the repair on the lip was done, it was not perfect,” she said. “Eating was a problem.
“I felt uncomfortable and I was in pain and had to be fed a soft diet.”
She endured her 10th surgery when she was 18.
But those were only the physical challenges.
Nora had to also deal with the emotional challenges that came from being “different”.
“I was taunted and bullied at school,” she said. “It was all verbal. “I remember the nicknames the school bullies had for me.
“They called me names like sumbing, senget and sengau ( unseemly, slanted and nasal).
She recalled feeling insecure.
“I lost my soul. “I was a sad child.
“But what could I do?
“I couldn’t go up to them and tell them ‘don’t do that’’,” she said.
At one point, her mother visited the headmistress but Nora was later advised to “not be so sensitive” as these were only children.
The emotional scars carried through to adulthood until she felt strong enough to share her journey.
This she did, not only sharing her story with others at the Cleft Lip and Palate Association Malaysia (Clapam) but also through her memoir Born to Smile that is scheduled to appear in bookstores next month.
Apart from telling her story, Nora also hopes to boost public knowledge about cleft-palate through her book.
It also includes an anti-bullying message. A documentary will soon follow.
“The objective is to tell parents of such children that they are not alone,” Nora said.
Cleft, also known as harelip, is one of the more common birth conditions, according to Clapam secretary Zuraini Ghazali.
“It is estimated that one in every 700 babies have it,” she said.
Today, a guideline called the Cleft Management Protocol is used by hospitals worldwide.
It outlines the type and timing of intervention for cleft-palate children.
If a cleft-palate child is born in a public hospital, Clapam will be informed and a special feeding bottle is provided for free.
Zuraini said parents would receive advice on how to manage their child at specialist clinics.
Such clinics are available in Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Sungai Buluh Hospital, Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, Shah Alam Hospital and Angkatan Tentera Tuanku Mizan Hospital.