Pakistan Cleft Lip and Palate Association (PCLAPA) announced here Sunday that it will hold its free plastic surgery camp from February 22 to March 03. Dr Ijaz Bashir, Secretary General of PCLAPA said that the camp will be arranged at Bashir Hospital, Railway Road, Gujrat.
Children with cleft lip and cleft palate will be operated upon, by a team of British and Britain-based plastic surgeons, specialists and para-medical staff, as has been done during nineteen similar camps that have been held over the past 13 years.
More than 1,300 children have been operated upon and 100 percent successfully treated and cured at these camps. A total of 7,000 children and other patients have been examined at these camps.
Dr Amanullah Raja, will examine patients belonging to Islamabad and surrounding areas on February 22 at House No 7, Street 13, F-8/3. Patients or their parents can now contact, Dr Akhtar Rehman, President, Islamabad Chapter of PCLAPA, at this address for appointment.
Dr Akhtar's Phone numbers 051-2251275 and 0333-515-7676. Patients will also undergo preliminary examination at Bashir Hospital Gujrat on February 23. The surgeries will start at the Hospital the same day and will continue till March 23.
PCLAPA has also announced that this camp in February-March will be followed by another camp in September. The team of plastic Surgeons is led by Dr Nick Hart, the British Consultant Plastic Surgeon of world known, and Head of the Cleft Lip and Palate Department at the Royal Hull Hospital, United Kingdom. He has been leading the British doctors and para-medics and has conducted hundreds of surgeries at Bashir Hospital, over the last 13 years.
At the camp in March, 2007, alone, Dr Nick Hart and his team had completed 147 surgical operations of patients suffering from the major disability of cleft lip and palate. This was followed by another camp in September, 2007, where 50 patients were operated upon successfully.
The surgery cures and helps patients with a cut lip or palate, or both-a disability that badly disfigures a person and his or her face. The patient also feels difficulty in speaking, spending a normal life or taking food and drinking, besides suffering psychologically, Dr Ijaz Bashir, said.
PCLAPA, with its headquarters at the surgery of Bashir Hospital, Railway Road Gujrat, was established in 1995.
The surgeons team includes a group of top UK-based Pakistani doctors topped by Dr Amanullah Raja, leading Plastic Surgeon Specialist in Cleft Lip and Palate Surgery.
Other members of the team of distinguished doctors will include: Dr Muhammad Riaz, Dr Zahid Rafique and Dr Rubina Ahmed. The surgery and treatment is free of cost to all the patients. The patients are also provided free accommodation and food at the Bashir Hospital, and are discharged after three to four days, following removal of stitches.
The PCLAPA operates as a registered charitable institution, and is funded by purely private donations, and contributions from zakat and sadaqaat. The Islamabad Chapter of PCLAPA is Chaired by Dr Akhtar Rehman, a former Director and Administrator of King Fahd Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia.
Patients, in advance of the surgery, are registered with Dr Ijaz Bashir, at Bashir Hospital, Railway Road, Gujrat, telephone: (53)- 3521102 or (53)-3524139.
Those from Rawalpindi-Islamabad region, Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas are registered with Dr Akhtar Rahman, in Islamabad, and later operated upon at Gujrat.
Dr Ijaz Bashir said, one out of every 530 children born in Pakistan suffer from cleft lip, cleft palate, or both. Tens of thousands of children suffering from this disability are now awaiting surgery. Ten thousand more such children are added to the number each year.
The best results of cleft lip surgery can be ensured if the children are operated upon when they are three months to one year old. The ideal age for cleft palate surgery is between the ages of six to eighteen months, because if the operation is carried out before a child starts speaking, it helps the child in speaking, Dr Ijaz Bashir said.