Smile Train Story — Prince | Amandeep Hospital

Khirat Lal Sharma worked as a waiter in hotel in a small town near Fazilka. He and his wife, Rekha Sharma used to remain frustrated as they were socially cut off. Reason being their newly born son Prince having cleft lip cut on one side. The parents were very complexed as no one came to congratulate the birth of their newly born child. They were very poor and did not interact with anyone regarding his treatment. They were psychologically crippled and had lost all hope of their son getting a normal face and living a normal life. Prince was deprived of all education as children used to laugh at him. He grew up with time to adulthood deprived of the love of his family.

To earn his living, he started with the profession of a driver. One fine day, when he was 20 years old, he came across a poster on way back home from his regular work routine. The poster was about the smile train sponsored camp in that area. He decided to visit the camp alone and there he was advised by the doctors to visit the smile train accredited centre, Amandeep Hospital, Amritsar, where such cases are done routinely and all these procedures are done by a team of highly qualified and specialized doctors free of cost through the NGO smile train. He was happy that after 20 long years, he came across a light of hope having a normal face which could be accepted in the society.

Luckily that time (4th — 11th December), Cleft Week was being celebrated by the team of Amandeep Hospital, where all the cleft patients participated in the sports events. Prince found this as a means of rejuvenation and showed great interest in games and won a few prizes as well. His confidence was built and with good will power, he went ahead with surgery. It was only after his surgery that his parents turned up and were unable to recognize his face. It was a new life for him. They all went back to their home happily.

Originally published at https://amandeephospital.org.