Conquering the Cleft Palate: El Paso boy, 8, barrels through multiple surgeries with energy and good humor - El Paso Times

Not many 8-year-olds can keep an entire medical team at bay as he entertains a throng of visitors. But not many 8-year-olds are as energetic, outgoing and simply full of life as Andrew Balsiger.

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"We do it to improve speech," said Dr. Frank Agullo, a plastic surgeon with El Paso Cosmetic Surgery and a clinical associate professor at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. "When a kid has a cleft palate, a lot of times they'll have nasal escapes, so you'll hear a very hypernasal speech with words with a 'K' or 'P' where you have to press your tongue into your palate and the air will escape through the nose and you'll lose those sounds."

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