Afghan doctor who treated 6000 cleft lip children free of cost

KABUL (Pajhwok): An Afghan doctor has operated upon 6,000 cleft lip children free of charge in Kabul and provinces in the past nine years.

Dr. Ghafar Ghayor, a specialist in cosmetic surgery, who belongs to Kunduz province, has been living in Turkey with his family. He visits Afghanistan two or three times a year for free operations.

Dr. Ghayor told Pajhwok some private and government hospitals, charitable institutions and civil society activists register patients with cleft lip or palate deformity in different provinces and then share the list with him.

He said after the receiving the list of patients, he used to make his plan and take with him necessary medical tools from Turkey.

“I travel in Afghanistan to provinces where these patients are registered or bring them to a nearby province and then I perform the surgeries”.

Dr. Ghayor said it was two months ago when he last came to Kabul from Turkey and treated children with cleft lip or palate through surgical operations.

He has been performing operations for free since last eight to nine years and has so far treated about 6,000 patients countrywide. Such a surgery in a private hospital costs $500.

Dr. Ghayor said before the regime change in Afghanistan, he had been unable to travel to many provinces due to security concerns, but now there was no such problem and he could travel to any province.

He attributed the cleft lip in children to the lack of Folate in their mother’s bodies during pregnancy and self-medication among other reasons.

He said he had operated upon children of poor families who even could not afford transport fares. He was thankful to God for his ability to serve people.

He said everyone should devote a part of his life to free service to people, especially doctors should so this and it was not hard.

Five-year-old Ahmad, whose father was killed while serving in the security forces of the previous government, had come to Kabul from eastern Nangarhar province with his mother and uncle.

Dr. Ghayor performed Ahmad’s surgery in Kabul yesterday.

Malalai, the mother of the child, was happy that her son was treated free of cost.

“My son would cry all night and because of poverty, his father joined the army, but his dead body was brought home after seven months.”

Malalai said her son could not even speak properly due to the cleft lip and she was happy that her son’s surgery was done for free.

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