Alliance for Smiles fixes clefts

Cleft lip and cleft palate result from errors in the development pattern before birth. They can cause serious health issues, and in third world cultures often result in ostracism because of the deformed appearance of the face.

Boulder plastic surgeon Alan Stormo, a longtime member of the Boulder Rotary Club, told members recently about his work with Alliance for Smiles, which uses volunteer surgeons from the United States to operate on these children and restore their faces to normalcy.

In 2008 Stormo performed surgery number 1,000 for Alliance for Smiles.

A cleft is a break, and indicates disfiguring fissures when describing birth defects cleft lip and cleft palate. In cleft lip, tissue from the two sides of the face has failed to fuse properly and form a complete lip, leaving .a gap that prevents normal lip function. In cleft palate, the fissure is in the upper roof of the mouth, leaving the mouth and the nasal cavity open to one another. Both defects are disfiguring and both prevent normal speaking; cleft palate also interferes with eating and voice production.

Worldwide these conditions arise in about one birth in a thousand, but with significant differences among ethnic groups. In countries with adequate medical resources these defects are usually corrected immediately by surgery on the newborn infant, in most cases allowing near normal restoration of the face before the child knows there has been a problem.

But Third World countries usually don’t have adequate medical services, and children with clefts often grow up with speech defects and as social outcasts because of their distorted faces.

Stormo has volunteered his time and skills in making many trips to countries without sufficient surgical services. In January he visited Bangladesh on a surgical mission.

“The surgery is a team effort,” Stormo said. “It takes the whole set of trained and experienced people – not just the surgeon but also the anesthetist, several specialized nurses, and a group of helpers – to carry out a successful surgery."

And the rewards to the patients, their families, and the surgical team are significant. The patient gets a new life, in many cases leaving no handicap; the family welcomes a fully functioning child or relative; the team sees the gratitude of patient and family, and has the knowledge that good has been done.

Stormo said that Rotary, through support from individual clubs and the Rotary International Foundation, has provided seed money to establish groups such as Alliance for Smiles that organize and administer the medical trips, and for direct support through local Rotary clubs in the countries where the surgery is performed.

Stormo spoke of his personal hero, Albert Schweitzer, and quoted him aptly: “Whatever your destiny, to achieve happiness seek and find how to serve.”




For more information on Rotary, see www.boulderrotary.org or www.rotary.org.

BOULDER ROTARY CLUB
5390 Manhattan Circle, Suite 101 Boulder, Colorado, 80303
303-554-7074 Rotary@roycearbour.com
Fax 720-304-3255 www.BoulderRotary.org


NEWS FROM BOULDER ROTARY CLUB
Contact: Sue Deans, 303-579-9580