By Frank Peterson | President
I would like to share with you the story of Yefri, a child in our Cleft Infant Nutrition Program. He was born February 19, 2013 in a rural community in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala with a severe cleft lip and open palate. Yefri had great difficulty nursing, became extremely undernourished, and, in all likelihood would not have survived without intervention. Thankfully, when Yefri was a month old, his family heard about a Partner for Surgery medical mission working nearby and brought him in for evaluation. And so began the 34 month effort for Yefri to become a normal, healthy child. He was placed in our Infant Nutrition program and his family trained in cleft infant care. His progress was monitored, surgeries scheduled, and his family instructed in the speech therapy so necessary to blend in with the other children in his community.
Yefri had his first surgery at 5 months but his lip opened again shortly after returning home. At 15 months, his palate was repaired but he began to recognize that he was different from other children and pulled at the flap forming part of his lip. At 26 months, he was pointing to other normal children and definitely ready for the surgery to correct his upper jaw and lip. Yefri’s mother was excited and anxious for the surgery because she knew her son desperately needed it and also would get wonderful care. As you can see from the photo just before his final surgery, Yefri needed extensive corrective procedures. After three hours of surgery, his surgeon, Dr. Virnelli of the Free to Smile team, said “Definitely one of the most challenging cases I’ve done in my life – and also the most satisfying.”
Yefri’s experience is unusual only in that he needed three surgical procedures instead of two and that his cleft lip and palate were more extensive than some of our other small patients. Partner for Surgery and the volunteer medical teams are grateful for the financial support from GlobalGiving which allowed us to prepare Yefri for a normal, productive life. Since our last report, 36 additional children have received cleft surgery and 142 are in our nutrition program getting healthy enough for the operations that will transform their lives. I hope from the bottom of my heart that you will continue to support our efforts.
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