Lewis K., 7

Lewis is a 7-year-old boy living with his single mother in a county close to Nairobi. He is the second child in a family of three. His mother, Esther, does not have a stable job and relies on casual labour to support her children, including Lewis. Despite the challenges at home, Lewis is a cheerful and energetic boy. He enjoys playing football with his friends and loves swimming. He dreams of becoming a medical professional when he grows up. The family learned about Helpster Charity through another beneficiary and later reached out to Vincent, a Helpster volunteer, for support. Lewis was born with both cleft lip and cleft palate. At five months old, he underwent palate reconstruction at Mbagathi Hospital, and a year later, he had cleft palate repair at Nairobi Hospital. A few months after surgery, Esther noticed palate fistulas, and Lewis underwent two additional repair procedures, but the fistulas continued to recur. Currently, several fistulas are still present, and Lewis has developed stuttered speech and dental abnormalities, along with delayed shedding of his milk teeth.

Lewis’s prognosis is fair to good with continued specialized care and long-term follow-up. Although he has experienced recurrent palatal fistulas despite multiple surgical repairs, this is a known complication in children with cleft palate and does not mean recovery is impossible. With evaluation and management by a multidisciplinary team - including a craniofacial surgeon, speech and language therapist, dentist/orthodontist, and ENT specialist - Lewis has a good chance of further improvement. Additional corrective surgery may be required to close the remaining fistulas, after which his speech quality and feeding can improve significantly. Speech therapy will be essential to address stuttering and articulation difficulties, while dental and orthodontic care will help manage dental abnormalities and delayed tooth shedding. Overall, with sustained medical, surgical, and rehabilitative support, Lewis is expected to lead a healthy, productive life.