Four-month-old Amelia has bilateral cleft lip and palate. She is in for surgery with consultant plastic surgeon, Peter, to have the first stage of a bilateral cleft lip repair called a lip adhesion.
Cleft lip and palate are birth defects, where a baby’s lips or mouth do not form properly during pregnancy. 1 in 700 babies worldwide are born with the condition each year.
As Peter explains, this can cause problems with feeding: “It can make it harder to take milk from a bottle or the breast, because the baby is unable to generate any suction as the mouth is open to the nose.”
Peter has kept a tally on how many new babies that he has operated on, he is approaching 1,500. Amelia is Peter’s 1,318th patient.
For over 20 years, Peter has known Amelia’s dad, as he explains: “There are a small number of families where the child will have a similar condition to the parent. For over 20 years I have known Amelia’s dad, as he had the same thing when he was little.”
Amelia’s operation will be the first of many she will have throughout her life, something dad Mitchell knows all about. Peter has operated Mitchell six times over the years, only recently completing the process of rebuilding his lip.
Amelia’s dad Mitchell was also born with a cleft lip and palate and completed his treatment three years ago at the age of twenty-six: “I know how it is going to impact her throughout her life. She is still going to be slightly different to people and I know the struggles she is going to have because I had them.”
Peter starts by repairing the front of the Amelia’s palate an important area for speech, he explains: “The particularly challenging bit today in a bilateral cleft lift is the repair of the roof of the mouth at the very front.”
Everything is very small, and the difference in getting it right and getting it wrong is a fraction of a millimetre. Peter marks the edge of the lip to make the incision to join the lip together.
Amelia is relying on a breathing tube to provide her with oxygen, a sudden change the oximeter rhythm would suggest Peter has compromised her airway.
After surgery to repair her cleft lip and palate, Amelia has been reunited with her parents.
Amelia has recovered from her surgery and is showing off her new smile.
