A child with a cleft lip sucks formula from a RUTF packet. Malnutrition can prevent children from getting corrective surgery.
Virginia Beach-based Operation Smile has provided hundreds of thousands of free surgeries in developing countries to children and young adults born with cleft lips, cleft palates or other facial deformities. This year the nonprofit organization is celebrating its 35th anniversary.
Operation Smile’s surgeries can change these young patients’ lives, not only changing their appearance but also greatly improving their ability to eat. But there is a catch. To undergo surgery, patients typically cannot be malnourished.
Operation Smile explains that malnourished patients are at risk for lengthier hospital stays, more infections, more post-operative complications and even death. Therefore, patients who suffer from malnutrition are often delayed for cleft surgery until they can gain enough weight.
