ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Feb 9 (PIA) – A 3-day free surgical operation to persons with cleft lip and or cleft palate (bingot in Filipino) was successfully held at Western Command’s (WESCOM) Camp General Artemio Ricarte Station Hospital (CGARSH).
The 6th Civil Relation Group of the AFP said in a report that the free surgical mission was held last January 26-28 2012 in partnership with Cranio-Facial Foundation of the Philippines (CFFP) and Palawan Provincial Health Office (PHO). WESCOM’s partnership with CFFP and PHO benefitted a total of twenty-eight (28) Palaweños, both children and adults, from different municipalities of Palawan with new and sweeter smiles.
Patients as far as El Nido in the north and Balabac and Bataraza in the south were catered to by the medical staff of CGARSH. Twenty (20) individuals underwent cheiloplasty for cleft lip and eight (8) had palatoplasty for cleft palate.
The surgical mission was spearheaded by the PHO and enlisted the help of WESCOM to host and house the patients. Medical screenings of the patients were also performed by the doctors and nurses of CGARSH while the surgeons from CFFP performed the surgeries and were assisted by WESCOM’s anesthesiologists, dentists and nurses.
Cleft lip or hare-lip and cleft palate are types of abnormal developments of the face during fetal development. They can occur together as cleft lip and/or palate. And with modern surgical treatment, all cases of cleft lip and/or palate can be corrected with minimal scarring.
However, these kinds of surgeries are quite costly for the poor thereby encouraging the Western Command to never missed an opportunity to help in delivering these types of services to the less privileged. This is part of the mission of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Internal Peace and Security Plan (IPSP) “Oplan Bayanihan” in delivering basic services to the people. This is where all the stakeholders, both government and non-government entities, join-up and ensure the delivery of basic human services. (6CRGAFP/RVC-PIA9 ZBST)