Patient Stories

Young Lin, now 5 years old, is the youngest of four children in his family. When he was born with a cleft lip, his mother cried for days and nights because she had never seen anyone with a cleft lip or cleft palate and did not know what caused her son’s deformity.

In China, 14-year-old Xue Hui has grown up surrounded by supportive family members and neighbors. She was born just 30 minutes before her twin brother, but when her mother realized Xue Hui had a cleft lip, she began to cry. Her mother had seen other children with a cleft lip and knew that life would be difficult for her child.

At 66 years old, Qi Xiu has done many things for many people in her life. She has been a wife, a mother, a grandmother and farmer. For years she raised her family in the remote countryside, farming corn.