Surgery gives 3-year-old Syrian refugee a new smile in the UAE

Despite being only 3 years old, Syrian boy Fadhel Yousef had began to ask his father why he looked different from his siblings. That was until a stroke of serendipity allowed him get the cleft lip surgery he desperately needed.

Three-year-old Fadhel Yousef recently had surgery to correct his cleft lip in one of Oasis Hospital’s sister facilities in Kenya. Doctors are now waiting for the lip to heal before correcting his cleft palate. Mona Al Marzooqi / The NationalShow less

AL AIN // Despite being only 3 years old, Fadhel Yousef had began to ask his father why he looked different from his three older siblings.

The Syrian child, who was born with a cleft lip and a cleft palate, said he noticed people were staring at him and did not like it.

Despite his condition, the youngster was not able to get corrective surgery in his home country.

There was no doctor with the skills to carry out the operations, and the war meant his family was forced to flee when he was six months old.

They sought refuge in Jordan where the government offered to help, but they could not find a qualified surgeon they could trust.

They moved on to the UAE, where Trey Hulsey, chief community relations officer at Oasis Hospital in Al Ain, saw Fadhel playing by the side of the road.

“Initially I was furious that the boy had to suffer and the condition had not been corrected,” Mr Hulsey said. “When I heard the family’s story, I asked his parents to visit our hospital.”

The family now lives in Al Buraimi, where Fadhel’s father Abbas Yousef works in a garage.

“We felt strange initially, because suddenly strangers were taking an interest in us and we wondered why,” said Mr Yousef.

“When we found out more about the hospital and realised they wanted to help us we were excited.

“It was very difficult for us to get the operation done. Money was scarce as I had left my home and my business behind.”

Oasis Hospital, which is part of the Cure International chain, arranged for Fadhel to have his operation in Kijabe, Kenya, and paid for the surgery as the hospital did not have a specialist in the UAE.

Fadhel was excited about the surgery beforehand, said his father. He kept pointing to his lip and telling people that it would soon be fixed.

“After the operation the difference was apparent immediately. Although his lip was swollen, he looked more complete. He looked whole,” said Mr Yousef.

The doctors in Kenya will wait until Fadhel’s lip has healed before operating on his palate in October.

Fadhel now has a new smile, but not every child is this lucky. One in 700 children in the world is affected by left lip or palate.

The conditions are rare in the developed world as surgery usually takes place when the child is young.

But in poor countries, a baby born with a cleft lip or a cleft palate is twice as likely to die before its first birthday as a normal child.

“Clefts lips can lead to death in infants as they are unable to receive nutrition,” said Morag Cromey-Hawke, executive director at the charity Operation Smile UAE. “When they are fed milk, it slips out or comes out through their nose.”

Cleft lip and palate operations are done over two weeks, three times a year at AIC Cure International Children’s Hospital in Kijabe.

In the fortnight Fadhel was there they completed almost 100 operations, most of them for free.

Surgeons come for two weeks, and carry out up to 50 operations a week.

“A cleft lip or palate can be operated on once the child is six months old and it should be repaired early,” says Mr Hulsey.

AIC Cure International Children’s Hospital has noticed that the average age of their patients has come down in recent years as awareness about the subject has spread.