DR.A.K Cherian Memorial Society
Seventy-six years ago, Dr. A. K. Cherian, motivated by a profound commitment to serve the underprivileged, established St. Thomas Hospital, which significantly addressed the community’s healthcare needs over nearly two decades, reflecting his visionary compassion and commitment to providing free or subsidized care to those in need without seeking financial gain.
St.thomas cleft & craniofacial centre : committed to bring a change
St. Thomas is South India’s most prominent name in repairing cleft-related/craniofacial deformities, where hundreds of children are treated every year. It is not easy to carry out the correction process with every cleft-affected child because it takes multiple surgeries and procedures over a course of 18 years, in almost every case, to complete the process. That is, on one hand, there has to be a full-fledged, advanced clinical environment and on the other hand, a team of dedicated professionals. The centre, by the grace of God, has both. The equipments and facilities we have here are nothing less than state-of-the-art.
And our team consists of maxillofacial surgeons, plastic surgeons, anaesthetists, senior-junior resident surgeons, speech therapist, audiologist, office co-ordinators and OT assistants. Their dedication is what made the centre and its services possible, as they are not just driven by the passion for their profession but also led by an ardent wish to
make this world a better place.
Lives that need to be reconstructed
No parents wish to see that their newly born baby has a fatal deformity like cleft. But unfortunately, as we all know, several babies are born cleft-affected. Though it is one of the most common birth defects in the human world, majority of the society turn a blind eye to the ill-fated lives of children who are born with a cleft lip and (or) a cleft palate. It would have been different if there were more awareness on the difficulties a cleft-affected person has to go through, other than not being able to smile as beautifully as most of us do.
The list of issues associated with cleft ranges from breathing and eating difficulties to serious speech disorders. Frequent infections in the ear that could lead to hearing loss, various dental problems etc. make a cleft-affected person’s life a nonstop struggle. The loss of confidence, isolation and personality damage he/she experi-ences are almost unimaginable for anyone who leads a normal life. But what we can imagine is a cleft-free world, by helping those unfortunate siblings of ours get the right treatment and the right to a better, normal life as well.
