A few months ago, a young mother arrived at a MEDLIFE mobile clinic with her 2 month old son. He had a cleft lip which he had been struggling with since birth and, upon looking inside his mouth, our doctors observed that he also had a cleft palate. The young boy’s mother told us that her son, Ãngel Zarate had been diagnosed by doctors just a few days after his birth. The family had been informed that three operations would be needed to treat Ãngles condition and the quicker they were done, the more effective they would be.
Ãngel lives in a small community in the hills of Villa Maria del Triunfo, the largest district of Lima’s ‘Pueblos Jovenes’. The house Ãngel shares with his brother and parents is small and does not have access to electricity and running water. Furthermore, the only access to the house is up a steep slope that is covered in dust and rubble. This is the path that Ãngel’s mother had to climb everyday throughout both her pregnancies.
Despite living in extreme poverty as so many in Lima’s slums do, Ãngel’s parents were determined to be able to get the treatment their son needed. After Ãngel’s birth, the family moved into his grandmother’s house as the cold conditions and difficulties with the hill were too much to contend with for a baby in Ãngel’s condition. Doctors who had been reviewing Ãngel’s condition said that it was important for the baby to be kept in a warm and comfortable environment both before and after the operation to give him the optimum opportunity to recover. They also stressed the importance of Ãngel taking the necessary medications recommended after the operation. The family were told that their health care (SIS) would cover the cost of Ãngel’s operations but that these medications would not necessarily be covered by the system.
This is where MEDLIFE came in. After explaining the situation to us at the mobile clinic, Ãngel’s mum signed Ãngel on to the MEDLIFE patient follow up list. The first operation on Ãngel’s lip took place just over a week ago on Monday 18th July. A few days after the operation, one of our nurses went to visit the family to see how the operation had gone. The change was remarkable, there was hardly any evidence of Ãngel’s previous cleft lip apart from a small scar. Ãngel has been prescribed a cream and some pills to take to help the healing process which MEDLIFE will pay for if it is not covered by the hospital.
Ãngel still needs two more operations. One to fix his cleft palate which will take place in a year and a final one to straighten out his nose when he is seven. MEDLIFE will continue to visit Ãngel and provide him with any financial or medical support the family need. Ãngel’s mother told us how important it was to her and her family to be receiving this support. She explained how “even though it’s only a little thing, it is making such a difference in my life and the life of my baby. It means so much to us to know that people care about our family”. We are looking forward to watching Ãngel grow and being able to support him in his development.