Team members of Mission Myanmar with some of the patients at Monywa.
Mail News Service
Imphal, June 1 : The entire team which went to Myanmar to conduct cleft and palate operations, has returned after conducting 103 operations on 87 patients.
Dr Palin, leader of the team addressing the media here today said, ‘Mission Myanmar’ was a triangular effort of Myanmar, India government and Shija hospital to link Myanmar with Smile Train Inc. (USA) and Shija Hospitals, Imphal, India to render free corrective surgeries to Cleft lip and Cleft palate patients in Myanmar.
The members who had gone to Myanmar had reached Moreh, the border town, yesterday.
Dr Palin said a 12 member team with three surgeons reached Government Hospital at Monywa, Sagaing Division, Myanmar on May 24 last and started operating the same day. About 103 surgeries were performed on 87 patients till May 27. All equipment and medicines were taken from Manipur, he added. Due to time constraints the team had to come back.
Narrating about the mission the doctors said a surgeon conducts four to five operations a single day but in Myanmar they had to perform non stop day and night. They all did it free of cost as they found that there are over one lakh patients in Myanmar and two surgeons in the entire country and no basic expertise to do the operation.
It is said that every 1 in 600 suffer from cleft lip and palate worldwide. According to the Myanmar population it is estimated that there are more than 1,00,000 patients silently suffering from this deformity. These cleft patients cannot speak and eat properly. They don’t go to schools because of the facial deformity and remain isolated in shame but they also have dreams.
A segment of the road from Kalewa to Monywa was quite bad.
Chief Ministers of Sagaing Region, U Thar Aye, and Manipur, O. Ibobi Singh visited the hospital two times on separate occasions and once together, while the team was carrying out the operations and encouraged the good work of the mission which will bring the two nations closer. Chief Minister of Manipur, O.Ibobi Singh also offered to sponsor the next Mission Myanmar as it will be an on-going programme.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/manipur-health-team-happy-over-success-of-mission-myanmar/
