She sat by herself on the ride to school. Other children teased her because of her cleft lip and palate, and no one wanted the seat beside her. Then she had reconstructive surgery, and the teasing faded along with the deformity.
Watching from the sidelines was a medical student named Dr.Andrew Jacono. He never forgot what he saw. Years later, that girl’s experience still frames the humanitarian work of Dr. Andrew Jacono, now a dual board-certified facial plastic surgeon in New York.
From One Patient to Hundreds
The lesson he drew was straightforward: surgery can change how the world treats a person. Dr. Andrew Jacono has applied it to more than 750 children in developing regions, many with the same condition that once isolated that girl on the bus.
His missions, typically two per year, run with Healing the Children, the HUGS (Help Us Give Smiles) Foundation, and THAI Children. Destinations have included Colombia, Ecuador, Thailand, and Vietnam. Besides cleft lip and palate, the teams treat microtia, facial tumors, and burn scars. These conditions can make eating and breathing difficult, and they often keep children out of classrooms.
Applying the Lesson at Home
The same insight guides his work with survivors of domestic violence. Facial scars from abuse can isolate an adult much as a cleft lip isolates a child. Through the FACE TO FACE project of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dr. Andrew Jacono has reconstructed the faces of more than 100 survivors for free.
That effort reached a national audience through Facing Trauma, a documentary series that aired in 2011 on Discovery Fit & Health and later on the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Dr. Andrew Jacono now passes the lesson along to younger doctors through his role as Fellowship Director for the academy. The girl on the bus remains anonymous. Her story, though, has quietly influenced hundreds of operations and a generation of surgeons trained to look beyond paying patients. See related link for additional information.
Follow Dr. Andrew Jacono on https://www.facebook.com/DrJacono/