A team of surgeons and volunteers hope to perform plastic surgery on about 40 children and adults over a four-day period ending Saturday, said staff from a Phnom Penh hospital.
Most patients had cleft lips and cleft palates, but some had burns or abnormalities like an extra finger, said Dr Mok Theavy, program director of NGO Operation Smile Cambodia.
“It’s all free of charge,” Dr Theavy said. Ruo Vuch Chheang, mother of a 3-month-old baby whose cleft lip was repaired on Thursday, said that they had traveled from their home in Prey Veng province for the operation.
“After the surgery, his mouth has a good shape,” Ms Vuch Chheang said. One Filipino and three Cambodian plastic surgeons were part of the about 25-strong medical team, which included a US pediatrician and English medical students, said Ho Thavry, a nurse at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital.
It is estimated that there are over 20,000 children and young adults with clefts in Cambodia.
