00:00In the hospital of Binan, Laguna,
00:03a free operation for children with cleft lip and cleft palate
00:07was given early by a non-profit organization, Mending Faces, from the United States.
00:13It's very rewarding, first of all.
00:15In the Philippines, there's a higher incidence of cleft lip and cleft palate.
00:19There's a lot of patients that don't get seen, don't have the money to have surgery.
00:23So as healthcare providers, we think it's important to be able to come down
00:27and to be able to help the children.
00:29Then, we can have such a huge impact on the patient's lives for the rest of their lives.
00:34According to the plastic surgeon of Mending Faces, Dr. Jeff Swale,
00:38cleft lip and cleft palate are hereditary.
00:42Some members of the family will get it.
00:44Much of it is due to genetics, combination of the genes,
00:49and some of it is environmental as well.
00:52The solution to this situation is surgery.
00:55Here in the clinic, we're going to take a look at them.
00:57Basically, we want them to be physically able to recover from the surgery.
01:03For instance, with a cleft lip, we can repair them at a few months of age.
01:08Unfortunately, we're a little more conservative here
01:11because with the anesthesia, we want to be completely comfortable
01:15that they can handle the anesthesia.
01:18According to Farrah Asierto, one of the partners of Mending Faces,
01:21anyone who will be undergoing surgery needs to go through an examination.
01:26Not everyone is qualified or can undergo surgery.
01:30So, they need to go through a laboratory test first.
01:34We requested them to have a faecalysis, urinalysis, and blood test
01:38so that we know if their bodies are healthy enough to go through the operation.
01:47One of them is Maisel Casin, who is traveling from Quezon Province.
01:51For those who might be able to go through the screening,
01:53her six-year-old grandson, Kendren, is one of them.
01:57When the time comes for us to go through the final screening,
02:02and everything is okay, I'll cry.
02:06I hope you'll grow up to be a good boy.
02:09Because I promised him that from the moment he came out,
02:12I told myself that I'll help him until his face is fixed.
02:19I'll fix his face so that he can live a normal life.
02:23So that he'll be able to be with other kids.
02:27So that he won't be bullied or bullied.
02:31Kendren went through the medical screening to undergo surgery.
02:35And the next day, he went undergoing surgery.
02:39And after the surgery, here's Kendren.
02:43And his grandmother thanked God.
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