85% Spenden
Raised: 85%

Cleft-centre Mumbai

In honour of the great humanist, actor and author Sir Peter Ustinov, who spent his life fighting against prejudice, the Cleft-centre in Mumbai was opened in 2004 and named after him: it is part of the Brahma Kumaris clinic. It is under the directorship of Dr. Parit Ladani and boasts an excellent speech therapy department. It is only in this fashion that the necessary follow-up treatments (speech therapy) can be organised - in this way that small patients are given the chance to completely integrate into society. To date 5,799 treatments have been performed. 
 
It is now eleven years since we joined forces with the BSES Hospital in Mumbai and established a Cleft-centre. For many years it was the only Cleft-centre of its kind in the state of Maharashtra.
 
Dr. Parit Ladani regards it as his task to treat all patients born with a cleft or a cranio-facial disfigurement irrespective of age, gender or social status. His vision would, however, be a dedicated "Centre of Excellence" with a multidisciplinary team.
The fact is:
One in 796 children born in India has a cleft.
Each year, 35,000 children are born in India.
In the state of Maharashtra alone some 3,000 children with cleft lips are born every year. That is approx. 100 cleft-children per day.
In its most recent data, the WHO refers to one million children with cleft lips in India.
In some cases, only the cleft lip is closed, the palate is left open, which can result in infections.
Children with cleft lips are of normal intelligence. 
 

Fellows (doctors in training)
On 15 November 2016 Dr. Megha Shah successfully completed her training as a cleft surgeon. During her training she assisted on 114 operations, performed 56 operations under supervision and 150 operations autonomously.
Her successor, Dr. D.T.H. Bohra joined on 01 December 2016 as a junior fellow.   
Dr. Angad Shetye completed the training as a junior fellow on 31 July 2016 and will remain until 31 March 2017 as a senior fellow.
Visit to CCI and CKS/Germany by Mr. G. Meyer, CEO of the foundation in Germany, and D. Schneider, CEO/CCI: they were on a joint visit to the BSES Hospital in Mumbai. Because Dr. Parit Ladani is currently on a further training course in Taiwan, we were welcomed by Dr. Richa Gala. She then took us on a tour of the hospital. In the late morning we were able to observe a cleft operation. On the next day we then returned to Switzerland. Dr. Richa Gala has also been in Switzerland for a number of days in order to visit the clinic of Prof. Sailer. 

Further training
Dr. Parit Ladani was in Taiwan from 01.12.2014 through 31.01.2015 on a further training course on cranio-facial anomalies at the "Chang Chung Memorial Hospital". During this period, he took part in a two-day workshop, as part of the international cleft and cranio-facial forum. The presentations and discussions of the forum were extremely informative. During the two months of his further training course he took part in one or two operations every day.  In so doing he learnt a great deal about the technology of orthognathic surgery. Every Monday a three-hour meeting takes place attended by all surgeons and orthodontists. The success of this training course can be seen in the number of cranio-facial anomalies on which he has operated since that time.