A hare-lip repair done about 20 odd years ago.

When I was working as Consultant Surgeon, Rathnapura, I went visiting the place I was  born in, Alupola Estate, where my father had been  employed as Chief Clerk. I met a child-hood friend Victor, who was the local bakers son. He had a daughter about 5 years old, with a hare-lip and cleft palate deformity. I told  Hector to bring the child for a surgical repair of  the deformity. He told me that an astrologer had predicted that the child would be cured when she was 18 years old. I kept on with the request with no response. I went on transfer to the  General Hospital, Kandy and  later to the  General Hospital Colombo in 1991. Hector turned up at my house in Avissawella, saying that the daughter was nearing 18 years. He wanted the surgery done now. I admitted her to my unit at the GH Colombo and Chandrika, as she was  named, became very popular in the ward, helping every one, but covering her face wikth one hand all the time and  the cleft lip made her voice, difficult to understand. I did her  surgery and on the 5th day removed the dressing and sutures. I got  a mirror and gave it to her, to look at her new face. She broke  out into a grin and promptly went on her knees  and paid the salutation common among the people here. When she stood up she was smiling and  there were tears  in her eyes. I hugged her and told her that she must get rid  of the habit of covering her face. I wanted her to get a dental plate fixed for the palatal defect but she never turned up for that procedure.  She got married later and when her first child  a daughter was born, in the midst of her pain the first question she asked from the mid-wife was whether the newborn had any facial defect. On being told that she had a beautiful daughter, she had cried uncontrollably  in happiness.
I was was going along with Geri Jayasekara, a fellow Surgeon and batch-mate, to Alupola, when I saw a famale on the road. Geri stopped the car and I asked her whther she knew Hectors daughter who lived around there. She said 'I am Hectors daughter' and only then I noticed the scar on her upper lip. She was very happy to see me. She called over her son and daughter and introduced them to me with pride. She had her own house and her husband was handicapped and worked in the tea-factory close by. The children were going to school at Wewalwaththe nearby. She seemed happy in her house.