The Angel of the Family

Cradling her newborn, Angel, in the delivery room, Aarti’s eyes fell on a gap in her lip, just off centre.

“It was a surprising moment for me”, she recalls. She had never seen a cleft before.

Immediately, the doctors recommended that the family visit Amandeep Hospital, a local Smile Train partner, for cleft care.

Angel was less than two weeks old when she had her first visit with the team at Amandeep. An orthodontist examined her and put a plate inside her mouth for nasal alveolar moulding (NAM), a common therapy that helps cleft-affected newborns with facial development, better preparing them for a successful surgery.

Angel’s grandmother peppered the staff with questions about cleft treatment, and they answered every single one. From then on, the family knew: Angel was in good hands.

At home, feeding baby Angel proved difficult. Neighbours told the family they should be worried about how Angel’s cleft might affect her education or her marriage prospects. Aarti’s response was always the same — Angel was going to be perfectly fine. The doctors said so.

“We wanted to spread the medical knowledge that Angel’s cleft was treatable”, said her father, Sushil.

At three months old, Angel went in for cleft lip surgery. Sushil was so nervous that his hands and feet went cold and started shaking. But as soon as they saw Angel post-surgery, both he and Aarti felt their apprehension disappear.

“It was beyond anything we had imagined”, Sushil says of the procedure’s results.

At nine months, Angel had a second surgery, this time on her palate. After that, her feeding issues went away.

Today, Angel is an adolescent who enjoys drawing, dancing, and playing games. She continues to work with the team at Amandeep Hospital on her comprehensive cleft care, which includes speech therapy and orthodontics.

“We've met a couple of families who have children with clefts,” Sushil says. “We tell them not to worry, go to Amandeep Hospital”.

And his message to Smile Train?

“You bring back our smiles, indeed”, he says.

“You are doing a wonderful job, particularly for people who can’t afford much. The fact is that cleft surgeries are expensive. I have no idea how we could have paid without Smile Train”.