Yasin, the second child of Bandra resident Shabana Khan, got a new face and a new life on Friday, as surgeons at the BSES Municipal General Hospital, Andheri, rebuilt the face of the infant born with terrible disfigurement. Moreover, the operation was done free of cost, reports Mumbai Mirror.
Shabana Khan's relatives had advised her to abandon the infant when he was born with a disfigured face.
Yasin was born with a rare congenital facial deformity, in which his lower lip was stretched up to the neck, lower jaw split in two parts and tongue stuck to the floor of his mouth.
In three complex surgeries, the surgeons at the BSES Municipal General Hospital, managed by Brahmakumaris' Global Hospital and Research Centre, completely restructured Yasin's face.
The restructuring has left no trace whatsoever of the deformity, which doctors claimed, was one among only 40 cases seen worldwide.
It took four months for the post-operative care, but Yasin's face is without blemish today.
The same relatives who had advised Shabana to abandon her baby are now flocking to see him.
Shabana and her husband Akbar, who works as a labourer with a construction firm, had approached BSES MG Hospital six months ago, asking doctors if they could help. After examining Yasin, Dr Parith Ladani, Cleft Surgeon from BSES Hospital, decided to reconstruct the child's face.
Dr Ladani told Mumbai Mirror: “He was suffering from multiple deformities. Normally, in a cleft disorder, patients have a gap in the upper lip. But in this case, Yasin's lower lip was divided in two and stretched up to the neck. Not just that, his tongue was stuck to the mouth and lower jaw divided in two parts. This meant we needed to conduct three repair surgeries simultaneously.”
Says Yasin's father Akbar Khan: “Life was extremely difficult for him, apart from the disfigurement. He would never have been able to speak and would have always had difficulty eating. With saliva always drooling from his mouth, he suffered oral and nasal infections quite often. But now, my son has a normal face. We are very happy to see his face. Now people can't make fun of my son. We are extremely grateful to the hospital.”
The surgery was done in three stages. In the first stage, the surgeons administered general anaesthesia through the nose, which was very difficult because of his deformity. Then they opened the separated lower jaw and joined them with a special wire that dissolves over time. After this, the surgeons separated the tongue that was stuck to the floor of the mouth, and the cleft lip repair surgery was done at the end.
