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MANGALURU: In 2011, 47-year-old Nigerian Ado Baba Ali had come to Mangaluru with fused jaws, unable to utter even a word and barely surviving on a liquid diet. Now, Ali is back in the city, for a cosmetic procedure to correct his receded chin, sporting a bright smile and a motor mouth to boot. 

 The new lease of life is all thanks to doctors at the Centre for Craniofacial Anomalies at Yenepoya Medical College Hospital, Deralakatte here reemphasizing the fact that the city offers best of medical facilities. Ali’s jaws had fused after a terrible road accident while he was travelling from Kaduna to Kano in Nigeria in a friend’s vehicle in 1988. Ten days after he got out of coma, he found his jaws were shattered and that he had sustained a fracture on his left leg. But that was not the end of his problems. His jaws had fused. He could not eat or speak. 

 Three operations in Nigeria and one in Egypt failed to rectify his condition. He found his saviour in Dr Mustaffa, head of the centre. He was operated in 2011. 

 Dr Mustaffa, who operated on him for seven hours along with Dr Shehzana Fatima and Dr Manu Prasad, said: "It was a fusion of temporo mandibular joint, a joint responsible for opening and closing the mouth. A procedure called gap arthroscopy was performed on Ali using rib grafts, for which two of Ali’s ribs were used."

 The doctor said the procedure was tough since reoperation of a joint is difficult. "But four years after the operation, Ali is fine which means the procedure has worked well with him,’’ said Dr Mustaffa. Recalling the accident, Ali said: "I was asleep at the back of my friend’s car. I don’t remember anything of the crash, but waking up after 10 days in coma." A resident of Kano city in West Africa, he was operated for free by the centre. 

 Ali said he was recommended by Nigerian doctors who were impressed with the presentation made by Dr Mustaffa at the World Craniofacial Conference in 2009. Ali was here for a month after the operation with the doctor personally supervising his physiotherapy. 

 "If it weren’t for Dr Mustaffa, I would not have been able to endure the pain during the physio sessions. He saw to it that I made it through,’’ he said. Acknowledging Dr Mustaffa’s help, he pointed out that for 13 years, he was not even able to utter a word let alone open his mouth. The liquid diet had left him all bones. Before surgery Ali was 49 kg and after four years, he is at a healthy 58 kg.