Jamal

The mother gives her son all her love and strength - and Jamal becomes healthy.

Jamal was born with bilateral cleft lip and palate. And although it was not easy for his parents to accept this, he was nonetheless accepted so lovingly into the family: no child could wish for more. Although Jamal was not actually physically able to smile, nonetheless he competed with his mother in radiating a sense of happiness.

 

Ever since his birth, she had given him the feeling that he was her sunshine, a wonderful likeable child for whom everything is as it should be. When Jamal finally came to us in our Cleft-centre for treatment, the optimism of his mother also gave him the strength he needed in the days before the operation: although she was scared of the intervention, she also knew that she had to and could place her trust in the doctors.
 

"I was told," says Prof. Sailer, "that she infected not only her son with her smiles. Our whole team thought that this woman was fantastic, because of her strength and energy." And it was true: in an operation which was completely free of complications, the doctors closed Jamal's bilateral cleft and just two days later it was clear that soon the only signs left of his disfigurement would be two slight lines between upper lip and nose, lines which will also gradually fade away. And now Jamal's mother is even happier than before, and both really do now smile in competition with one another.