Smile Foundation promises to make Muhluri’s smile bigger

A three-year-old Smile Foundation beneficiary born with a congenital problem, had her first surgery after birth and recently underwent a life changing craniofacial surgery. Niyikwe Chauke’s daughter Muhluri, had the surgery on November 2.

The Smile Foundation in Hyde Park joined hands with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Parktown to live out Nelson Mandela’s vision to give underprivileged children the healthcare they desperately need.
The initiative was for Smile Week which runs from October 30 to November 3.

Neurosurgeon Dr Jason Labuschagne explained that Muhluri was born with a frontal encephalocele whereby there was no separation of the brain, bone, and the skin. “There was also excessive tissue called lipoma. When she was a few days old, surgeons at Baragwanath Hospital tried to do a separation and closure of the defect which was partially successful but she was left with significant problems.”

Labuschagne added he and a team of doctors decided that age three was the right time to do the closure surgery on Muhluri.
“It is a very technical operation, we have had four or five different opinions and has taken a lot of investigations in the form of MRI, CTI scans and angiograms to get to the point where we have decided it is safe to repair. We will close her skull and remove some of the abnormal tissue and get cosmetic improvement but the main thing is to close her skull and prevent further injuries. It will probably be a two-stage procedure which includes a cosmetic procedure.”

Chauke said doctors were unsure of her daughter’s condition until the labour period of her pregnancy. Her daughter was erroneously diagnosed as having hydrocephalus until a scan revealed that Muhluri had frontal encephalocele.

“Throughout the process, I was nervous because the doctor who gave me the first diagnosis said my daughter might be in a vegetative state due to the swelling and her brain not being fully developed. Generally, my daughter is never in pain and does not understand her condition but she still behaves like a normal three-year-old.”

Chauke said because of her daughter’s condition, children sometimes were scared to interact with her or stare, but as a mother, she tried to make the children understand that Muhluri was like them.

Acting Smile Foundation CEO, Marc Lubner concluded, “Children who are born with deformities that affect their head and facial bones become more cognisant of their physical differences from other children the older they get. Through our many Smile Weeks, Smile Foundation is geared to assist children like Muhluri from an early age, to help lessen the emotional damage that they will experience later on in life.”

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