Shija hospital conducts free mega surgery camp in Nagaland

IMPHAL, Apr 1
A free mega surgery camp for primary cleft lips and palates (unrepaired cleft lips and palates), was held at Oking Hospital & Research Clinic (P) Ltd, Kohima from  March 28 till 30 under Smile Train Shija Cleft Project – Mission Nagaland, 41st Phase, said a statement from Shija Hospitals and Research Institute.
Altogether 29 children with cleft lip and palate were operated free of cost during the free mega surgery camp under Smile Train India.
Smile Train Shija Cleft Project-Mission Nagaland is an initiative to reach out to the cleft lip and palate patients of Nagaland and give them a new lease of life by rendering absolutely free of cost corrective surgery, free medicine, accommodation and travelling allowance up to a permissible limit. More than 600 cleft patients from Nagaland have availed of free treatment till date under this project and still counting, added the statement.
 From September, 2011 onwards till date the project has become a collaborative initiative of Smile Train Shija Cleft Project, Imphal and Oking Hospital, Kohima. The cleft patients from Nagaland need no longer be transported to Shija Hospitals, Imphal for treatment as a team of doctors from Smile Train Shija Cleft Project, Imphal regularly visits Oking Hospital, Kohima to perform free corrective cleft surgeries.
Cleft lip and cleft palate are openings or splits in the upper lip, the roof of the mouth (palate) and are among the most common birth defects. Research reveals that 1 in every 600 to 800 live births is born either with cleft lip or cleft palate.
Smile Train was founded in 1998. Since then, Smile Train has grown into the world’s largest cleft-focused global NGO with its headquarter based in New York, USA and helping more than 1,500,000 desperately poor children with clefts, training thousands of medical professionals and establishing hundreds of programs in the world’s poorest countries.
The team of doctors from Smile Train Shija Cleft Project, Imphal for the recently concluded Mission Nagaland, 41st Phase was led by Dr Kh Palin, Smile Train partner surgeon.