Operation Smile South Africa’s World Care Program (WCP) is set to bring five-year old Mardoche Lisange, a Democratic Republic of Congo national to Kwa-Zulu Natal for a life-saving surgery in early November.
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| 5 year old Mardoche Lisange |
Lisange was identified as an eligible candidate for the World Care Program during the Operation Smile Mission to the DRC in May 2010, when, due to the complex nature of his facial deformity, the volunteers on the mission in Kinshasa were not able to fulfill his surgery on the mission.
“Mardoche unfortunately suffers with encephalocele – a neural tube defect characterised by a sac-like protrusion of the brain and membranes that cover it from openings in the skull,” says Operation Smile’s Scarlett Steer. “This deformity is only reparable via complex and often lengthy surgery which can only be performed by a highly specialised craniofacial surgeon, of which there are relatively few in the world.”
Steer continues, “Although we were not able to operate on Mardoche during our mission earlier in the year, we are pleased that we are able to bring Mardoche to South Africa for his life-changing surgery, as left untreated, encephalocele will continue to grow and there is a very real possibility of it becoming life-threatening.”
Between May 2009 and May 2010, Operation Smile, in collaboration with the DRC Ministry of Health, conducted a surgical mission at Clinique Ngliema in Kinshasa with a highly qualified and credentialed Operation Smile volunteer team from South Africa who provided free surgery to 370 patients with facial deformities. During both missions there were a number of patients who arrived for screening that were not operated on but who were eligible for the Operation Smile South Africa’s World Care Program.
Steer says that the World Care Program aims to treat adults and children who are, by virtue of the complicated nature of their particular disfigurements, in need of more specialised craniofacial care than can be provided on the Operation Smile South Africa’s volunteers and professionals during missions and therefore treatment is offered in South Africa to these special needs patients at its dedicated craniofacial unit at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban.
“Patients are assessed and identified eligible for the program on a case-by-case basis and with the assistance with both the South African and relevant ministries of health they are bought to Durban to benefit from the life-changing and often life-saving, medical care,” She adds.
Mardoche is the first World Care Program patient that has been selected from the DRC. He will travel to Durban with his mother Niclette Ebongwa at the beginning of November, where they will begin their journey. He will receive his assessment the week they arrive and will be operated on the following week. Both the young boy and his mother will remain in Durban for two weeks to ensure all is well before returning home to the DRC.
Prof. Anil Madaree, one of the top craniofacial surgeons in the country, will be assessing and performing the surgery on the five-year old. “Madaree is the Medical Director of Operation Smile South Africa and the Head of Plastic Surgery and Reconstructive Surgery at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital and will provide his services free of charge,” adds Steer.
“We are incredibly excited to be bringing Mardoche to South Africa where he will begin his journey of a new life.”
For more information or to get involved:
http://southafrica.operationsmile.org/
About Operation Smile
Operation Smile is a global non-profit, volunteer medical services organisation which provides free reconstructive surgery to children and adults with cleft lips and cleft palates in over 50 countries world-wide.
Operation Smile South Africa is the regional hub for Southern and central Africa and provides free surgical and educational programmes through partnerships with the Ministries of Health. Their mission principle is: No person, in any community, should have to live with the pain and isolation caused by correctable facial deformity.
The success of Operation Smile over the last 27 years is due to the amazing volunteer, diplomatic, corporate and individual support that the organisation receives. Together with their partners they create change, provide hope and give people who would not otherwise have the opportunity and chance to live a normal live.