When the child Ruksana used to see her face in the mirror she was unable to hold up her tears and she uses to think that it is her fate to carry this deformed face throughout her life. Actually, she was born in a poverty driven family with a congenital deformity of Cleft Lip and she was operated upon in her early childhood by a local doctor who was not qualified enough to do the justice with this kind of deformity. The result was the more deformed face which was now even more difficult to fix than before. In the coming years, the trauma over the family kept on increasing with the untimely death of Ruksana’s father, who was killed in a terrorist attack in Dodha (Jammu). As the main bread earner of the family left, the meager chances of Ruksanas getting her scarred lip fixed went vanishing. Now the child’s mother had to work day and night to earn their livelihood. They couldn’t afford even 2 meals a day.
It was never in their dreams that they would get the deformity corrected on the child’s face. Once when she was working in a house she discussed her problems with the people there. They told her that even in their family there is a child with cleft lip, who was operated on in a hospital at Amritsar. This was done under an organization called smile train. So she can also get her child operated on free of cost. It was like a dream come true for the mother to see the dream of her child’s smiling face like other normal children. But the things are not so easy; she didn’t even have the conveyance to go to Amritsar neither she was having money to do so.
She tried to contact the hospital on phone, she was informed that the smile train bears even the conveyance expenses. Meanwhile, she came in contact with a patient who was operated upon in Amandeep Hospital and they told her that they will take Ruksana with them for the treatment in Amandeep Hospital Amritsar. Her Mother Agreed happily and they were brought to Amandeep hospital Amritsar. Ruksana and her mother were surprised to see the various facilities provided by Amandeep Hospital in the Smile Train Ward like lodging, meals, Surgery, to and fro Travel expenses, Toys to children were free of cost with one attendant.
On her arrival, her complete examination by a team of doctors was done and the case was planned for the next day. On the very next day, she was operated by a team of super-specialized Plastic Surgeons. Due to the previous surgical scars, it was not easy to give Ruksana her dream face, the presence of Plastic surgeons with the latest surgical equipment and techniques made the change and Plastic surgeons were able to correct her secondary deformity nicely. When she saw her face after the operation she was once again in tears but this time the tears were of happiness because her life was now changed forever.