Dr Sesime Sanni Never Slows Down

Dr Sesime Sanni is the head of paediatric surgery at Smile Train partner Centre Hospitalier Prefectoral D’Aneho in Togo and her country’s first female paediatric surgeon. Here is her unforgettable story in her own words.

I think being a doctor is a calling. We had a lot of chickens when I was a child, and I would take care of the ones with fractured limbs. My elder sister is a paediatrician working in Benin, so I was also drawn to follow in her footsteps. At a certain point, I thought I might like to be an economist, but I quickly dropped the idea because there were too many students in the classes and I came to realise I was scared of crowds. I do not do well in crowds. Of course, I was also motivated to become a doctor by the desire to take care of people, especially kids. They are my driving force.

I enrolled in my first year of general surgery residency in 2012, but I didn't really like it. That was okay, though, because I only enrolled in it to bide my time until the paediatric surgery residency launched the following year. Once it finally did, I signed up as fast as I could. It was everything I wanted and more — at one point, a Smile Train partner visited and led a training on cleft surgeries, and I knew right away that that was what I wanted to do. I even did my medical thesis on cleft procedures.

By the end of the course, I could perform some cleft surgeries, but not all of them. Still, I was eager to do what I could to help these children, and their parents were desperate to get them the surgery they needed. However, they simply couldn’t afford it. We had many cases where we could not perform an operation because the family lacked the means. It was heartbreaking.

What was doubly heartbreaking for me was that I knew it didn’t need to be this way because I knew that we could partner with Smile Train to provide these surgeries for free. I became determined to bring Smile Train to Togo, even if I didn’t yet know how.

I was in Ivory Coast for a training in 2016 when another doctor called me and told me one of Smile Train’s partners wanted to get in touch with us. I said of course, and she called that same evening. That was the beginning of a long story that ends with me becoming Togo’s first female paediatric surgeon and my hospital becoming a Smile Train partner in 2021!

I am proud to say that in just our first year, I was able to help 57 children smile with free cleft surgeries.

But I don't rest on my laurels. Above all, I want to improve things. We can’t remain in the same spot; it is either we move forward or we fall back, and falling back is not an option.

A Different Person

The happiness on the mothers’ faces when they see their children after cleft surgery keeps me going. It is what motivates me. When I am in the operating room, I am a different person; I am focused on getting the surgery done. Time freezes. But when I leave the operating room, I feel like a mother. I can feel what it means to hand a baby who has gone through the procedure to her mother.

This is my passion, and I cannot help myself from doing the procedure.

Continuing Education

I have to emphasise that without Smile Train, my work would not be possible here. We would have many, many fewer smiles. It is thanks to them that we have modern, reliable anaesthesia equipment, surgical equipment, post-operatory management training, and so much else in our hospital. When I make a request to Smile Train, I am sure that sooner or later it will come.

Of course, there is still much left to do. My vision is to improve our communications because patients do not come on their own. We must ensure that everyone knows that when a child is born with a cleft, we can assess the baby and start feeding them immediately. We must also work hard to fight common myths, to make sure everyone knows that clefts are not a curse, they are not the mother’s fault, and that surgery is safe for both adults and children. I know of three adults with clefts who do not want to be operated upon. So, we need to communicate to be able to convince people to go for the surgery, and this is still a work in progress.

I am also still a work in progress! I want to be able to continue to learn more about cleft surgery, including techniques I do not yet know, such as the alveolar bone graft. Likewise, my entire team is dedicated to continuing our training so that we can always improve the care we provide, especially when it comes to expanding the non-surgical cleft care we offer, including nutrition, orthodontics, and speech therapy — all of which are absolutely vital to helping children with clefts thrive.

The Healing You Bring

If you are a Smile Train donor, I want you to know that your money is not wasted at all. It is being used every day to help train medical professionals like my staff and me and save children’s lives.

As proof, I will leave you with one of my favourite stories:

A patient’s mother told me that when her child was born with a cleft, her husband blamed her and left them. That is tragic, and tragically not uncommon here. Thankfully, she found us, and I was able to operate on her child. She sent the dad a message afterward to let him know, and he came to see the child in the hospital. When they returned home, he came back with them to stay. There are many other stories I could tell, but this one has touched me the most: This one surgery was the trigger for the reconcilliation of a couple and perhaps the reconstitution of a family.

I am sharing it because you made it possible, everything from the skills and equipment our team used to operate on the child to the child’s smile and the happy family that resulted from it. And you make more stories just like it happen around the world every day.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for helping dreams come true on both sides of the operating table!