Every day, some 600 children are born with cleft lip and palate. One of them is Muhammad from Bangladesh. In early 2024, our little patient was born in Rajshahi Division in the north-west of the country. The somewhat rural Rajshahi Division is home to 20 million people living in an area roughly the size of the German federal state of Saxony. Like many people in Rajshahi, the family makes their living from agriculture.
Muhammad has a unilateral cleft lip and a submucous cleft palate. Here, the mucous membrane of the palate is intact, but the muscles and often also the bone of the hard palate have not grown together and cause problems. Due to the thin layer of skin over the cleft, not much can be seen at first glance, but the children still need surgery to close their clefts.
A total of six permanent teams local are currently working in Bangladesh. Dr. Mohammad Quamruzzaman (Dr. Zaman in short) was the first surgeon to join the team. Dr. Sayeed Ahmed Siddiky and Dr. Abhi Kimar Chakraborty joined the team in 2018. With the addition of Dr. Mohammad Mazharul Haque (short form: Dr. Imran), we were able to further expand our aid effort in Bangladesh in 2022. Since the beginning of 2023, Dr. Al Masum Ziaul Haque, who worked on Dr. Zaman’s team for many years, has started his own team. In addition, we have set up a training program in Bangladesh for interested young surgeons who are being trained as cleft specialists by our highly experienced team leaders.
In Muhammad’s case, the family turned to our experienced surgeon Prof. Dr. Muhammad Quamruzzaman (“Dr. Zaman”). Dr. Zaman has been working with us for many years and has performed thousands of cleft surgeries during this time. From his base in the capital Dhaka, he travels all over the country to provide surgeries to cleft patients in regional hospitals.
Muhammad is very good hands with him. He is only six months old when Dr. Zaman closes his cleft lip in his first operation this autumn. Soon – usually after a recovery period of at least three months – his cleft palate will also be closed. Muhammad will then be able to grow up without the serious health restrictions of untreated cleft lip and palate.
Deutsche Cleft Kinderhilfe in Bangladesh
Behind every cleft surgery is the life of a child with cleft lip and palate taking a turn for the better. As is now the case with Muhammad. Our local medical teams were able to perform almost 2,000 operations in Bangladesh alone in 2023, 8,000 worldwide according to our annual report.
We are currently showing focusing on our work in Bangladesh on Instagram and Facebook, where we are placing a special focus on our work in the South Asian country this month.
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