FIMA Year Book 2010-2011 - Federation of Islamic Medical ...

FIMA SaveSmile
Unilateral incomplete Unilateral complete Bilateral complete
Methods:
Historical background of creation of FIMA
SaveSmile Project is explained and the performed
activities to date are highlighted.
Results:
After an overwhelming success of FIMA Save
Vision, an award winning project 6 , the current
Federation of Islamic Medical Associations
(FIMA) leadership has been exploring other
avenues for medical relief work in various
specialties on the global level. During a discussion
in the FIMA Executive Committee 2008 meeting
in Jeddah, proper planning to deal with these
correctable birth defects was discussed. Professor
Mamoun Humaida, President of the Sudanese
Islamic Medical Association, outlined the
prevalence of this problem in Sudan, especially
the remote and rural areas, together with lack of
qualified surgeons to minimize the backlog of
uncorrected cases, at proper timing. Dr. Parvaiz
Malik, a plastic surgeon from the Islamic Medical
Association of North America (IMANA)
responded by a proposal to organize the first free
camp to correct cleft lip and palate in Sudan. The
new relief project was approved and adopted by
FIMA, with the hope to expand it to other needy
countries. The incidence of cleft lip is significant
in Sudan 2,7 and there is an extreme shortage of
surgeons performing the repair. Being prevalent in
the lower socio-economic population, most
parents are not able to afford these operations.
A large number of cleft lip and palate surgeries are
performed by surgeons from many Islamic
Medical Associations (FIMA members) across the
globe every day, however a need was felt to
formalize such activity under the umbrella of
FIMA. Medical relief efforts by Muslim doctors
should be recognized collectively rather than
individual accomplishments. The idea of FIMA
SaveSmile and FIMA SaveDignity was
conceptualized. These projects were formally
adopted by FIMA EXCO in the March 14, 2010
meeting in Makkah.
A team of two plastic surgeons from USA, Dr.
Parvaiz Malik and Dr. Khalique Zahir,
anesthesiologist Dr. Ismail Mehr and Dr. Labib
Syed, of Islamic Medical Association of North
America (IMANA) travelled to Sudan in March
2010 to launch the FIMA SaveSmile project. First,
the team travelled to al Fashir, Darfur to assist the
FIMA SaveDignity team for the vesico-vaginal
fistula repair operations. Then a four days Cleft
Lip/Palate Camp was held at the University of
Medical Sciences & Technology, Khartoum,
Sudan in collaboration with Sudanese Islamic
Medical Association (SIMA).
Over two hundred patients with primary and
secondary cleft lip and palate patients were
screened. The team performed 62 operations with
excellent immediate results without any
complications. Imam Sheikh Noor and Imam
Mohamed Magid, a past and current presidents of
Islamic Society of North America, both of
Sudanese descent, joined the team in Khartoum
for moral support and help with the
communication with local community.
The camp was a great success. The local
maxillofacial and plastic surgeons assisted and
obtained training to perform these surgeries on
FIMA YearBook 2010-2011 96