Twenty-five orphans who suffer from a cleft lip or cleft palate are receiving a free surgery at The Peking University Third Hospital in Beijing.
Under an initiative jointly launched by Philip Hayden Foundation, University of Arkansas, and The Peking University Third Hospital, these orphans, most of whom are less than one year old, are being given the surgery at the hospital by a medical team consisted of more than 40 medical workers from the hospital and nine from the United States.
It is learned that out of every one thousand new born babies in China, about 1.6 are born with a cleft lip or cleft palate, and more than 1.7 million children in the country suffer from the physical defect which not only affect their language capacity, but also cause mental problems when they grow up. Six to 12 months is said to be the best age for cleft lip and cleft palate patients to receive remedial surgery.
