Today was an exciting day at clinic for the Rotaplast team, Sohag Hospital medical staff and volunteers, and in-coming patients. Over 180 patients came to the clinic at Sohag Hospital to meet Rotaplast surgeons, speech pathologists, and dentists in hopes of receiving life-changing cleft lip and/or cleft palate repair surgery.
Ayah, featured on the right, is an 11 year old patient who awaits surgery. She is a vivacious, beautiful girl who has a cleft palate. Her mother, Mousra, pictured with Ayah, also has cleft lip and palate and has had two surgeries to correct it. This mother-daughter are warm, wonderful people and look forward to the surgery that will help improve Ayah's ability to eat and speak properly and drastically reduce the number of respiratory infections caused by her cleft lip and palate.
Dr. Majka Tolarova and her genetics team from University of Pacific Medical School in San Francisco are with the Rotaplast team and spent the day interviewing patients, conducting nutritional analysis, and drawing blood samples from patients as part of an extensive research program to help understand the underlying genetic causes of cleft palate.
Dr. Tolarova lectures local Sohag University Medical Students on the genetic component of cleft lip and palate.
Please continue to visit our blog. As the week unfolds we will keep you posted on the progress of our patients, show you before and after photos and share the incredible journey that keeps Rotaplast connected to communities throughout the world.