Pre-Surgical Care: Patient’s Story
Muhammad, a one-year-old patient from Ein Al-Basha/Balqa. He was born with a cleft lip and palate; at the age of two months, he underwent lip surgery at one of Amman’s local hospitals.
Muhammad, like any other infant with a cleft, requires additional feeding assistance. Because infants with cleft palates cannot use standard bottles or breastfeed exclusively, they require special bottles and feeding techniques.
He started at 6 months to have problems linked to feeding, such as aspiration and “Nasal regurgitation” which is a swallowing disorder that occurs when food or fluid comes up into the nose while eating or drinking.
His mother conducted an extensive search for a facility where she could obtain assistance and advice for her son’s case, and after conducting extensive research on social media and receiving numerous recommendations, she contacted “Operation Smile Jordan”, and was scheduled to meet with the organization’s speech therapist.
His mother met “Taqa Abu Hawileh,” a speech pathologist, who provided her with support and assistance with feeding and swallowing for Muhammad’s case.
Muhammed’s weight increased by 3 to 4 kilos in 4 months, and he began to eat and swallow all types of food without choking.
After that, Muhammed’s weight and health were ready for surgery, so OS Jordan’s patients’ recruitment coordinator contacted his parents for screening one month before the May’s surgical program, and he was able to have the cleft palate surgery with a very successful outcome.
His parents wanted to express how happy they were with the care they received from the team and they are very satisfied and grateful to everyone.
Today Muhammad marks a successful case with Operation Smile Jordan, and he will start speech sessions very soon.
