Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 7: Amandeep Hospital, Amritsar, organized a function at Golden Tulip to celebrate more than 5000 free Cleft Lip and Palate surgeries completed in last 10-years, on the humanitarian initiative of ‘Smile Train’- the world’s largest cleft charity sponsors free surgeries for such conditions.
Smile Train’s star donor, Poonam Mittal had flown down from UK to attend the function and presided as the chief guest on the occasion. Along with her were Mamta Carroll, Smile Train’s Regional Director South Asia and Renu Mehta, Country Director India who were warmly welcomed by Dr Ravi Mahajan, HoD Plastic Surgery and Project Director ‘Smile Train’ with Dr Harish Ghildiyal in the presence of Dr Rajeev Bhalla, civil surgeon and medical luminaries Dr Avtar Singh and Dr Amandeep Kaur, directors of Amandeep Hospital.
A street play to create awareness about cleft was presented by renowned theatre personality Kewal Dhaliwal. A video film presented on patients with family histories of the problem and surgical help to deal with living including, speaking, breathing and swallowing food.
Dr Ravi Mahajan gave a presentation on hospital survey of a sample numbering 5025 Cleft Lip and Palette surgeries done by Amandeep Hospital.
Explaining about birth defect of clefts, its affect on life, Dr Ravi, detailed the role of the ‘Smile Train’ Project including bearing expenses of corrective surgery, counseling, pick up & drop, medication, hospital stay, as also reimbursement of ‘lost wages’ for poor patients.
Dr Ravi presented the breakup of regions covered by the Amandeep hospital, with highest patient count from Jammu and Kashmir at 2788 followed by Punjab with 2107 patients, Himachal Pradesh (46) Haryana (31) , UP (22) Others (31).
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