Cleft palate surgery

Today was an especially exciting day. We started it off with an extravagant breakfast of fresh fruit, eggs, and toast, compliments of our hotel for the inconveniences of the previous night and early this morning. We arrived at Korle Bu Hospital at 9am once again, but this time headed to the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery unit across from the ENT unit. As speech -language pathologists, we rarely see the actual surgical processes for cleft palate, even though we study the surgical procedures thoroughly in classes and textbooks. This is because SLP’s role takes place primarily with pre-operative recommendations and post-operative recommendations and therapy.

Today, however, we would be in the O.R. -- not an observation gallery! -- to closely watch every incision and suture of several cleft palate surgeries, mere inches from our very eyes!


We were briefed on the day’s surgeries and headed to see a few speech/language clients. As with the past two days at Korle Bu, the cases were extremely interesting, and it is amazing every time we see tears well up in a parent’s eyes, or even a parent’s excitement to implement recommendations we give to them at the end of the appointment. These cases are always the most promising, as our short stay in Ghana is useless if the training we provide and the techniques we share are not carried on by parents and local health care providers after our departure. Sustainability is key!

Now for the juicy stuff.
** Warning: surgery pictures coming up!**

At approximately 1pm, we headed back to the Plastic Surgery unit, stripped down to our bras and panties, then donned scrubs, scrub caps, sterile crocs, and masks in preparation for the surgery. We snapped a mandatory photograph,

then headed into the O.R. (or, as they call it at Korle Bu, the “surgical theatre”). With my nose mere inches from the patient’s bloody open mouth, I stood captivated, holding my breath as the surgeon swiftly and deliberately snipped, pulled, stretched, and sutured within the oral cavity. Dear Lord, was it amazing!!

Of one patient, I was able to snap a photo before


and after.


Then, I got a few “during” photos of another patient.



A-may-zinggg. We left the last surgery early to grab our regular 4pm lunch/dinner at Korle Bu, and we were able to try fufu, the traditional Ghanian dish we’d been hearing so much about. I was neither impressed nor disgusted. Rather, it tasted to me like rice mochi in a tomato-ey soup! What did impress me, though, was watching George eat fufu with his hands, using his finger to mash the fufu, his thumb to create a depression in the middle of the mass to hold the soup (not unlike the “volcano” style of serving mashed potatoes and gravy back home), and bringing it to his mouth and devouring it with such class. It is definitely a mastered African art!

After our meal, we visited the Artists Alliance, an exhibition of countless of talented Ghanaian artists’ work. I was most awestruck by the impressionist paintings by Ablade Glover that were displayed and sold for thousands of cedis. Several of the girls purchased small items such as cards, beads, textiles, and accessories before we headed back to Unique Palace to repose.

Danielle and I lingered by the pool earlier this evening, trying to catch a WiFi signal in order to publish her post to our team blog, and we noticed the ever so miniscule drops of rain that disturbed the pool’s glassy surface every few minutes. We worked to edit the blog over the snail-speed connection, when suddenly we heard a muffled rumbling, steady and muted. As we exchanged quizzical looks, the rumbling grew progressively louder, and quite rapidly, too. ‘Twas a matter of seconds, and it sounded as if a train were approaching us. “Run!” we shrieked simultaneously, and even as we darted the short 50 feet across the courtyard, we became drenched in the sudden monsoon-like rain. Never before had I witnessed such a sudden and isolated rainfall. It was almost as if there was an isolated storm cloud, being blown 40 miles per hour across the West African sky!

And so we’ve experienced our first sub-Saharan rainstorm, ephemeral as it was. ‘Twas yet another amazing day in Ghana, a country that is undoubtedly building itself a special place in my heart. Good night, world!