Samantha Shaw from South Dakota is 7-years-old and was born with deformed “cup” ears that stick out. Additionally, her right ear had a malformation called a “lop” ear that flopped inward in a curl. Children have made fun of her and called her Dumbo and Monkey Ears. “Adults are the worst,” said her Mom, “right in front of her they’ve called her ears gross. I’m worried about bullying and her self-esteem.”
ABC News “Good Morning America” aired an emotional segment about Samantha’s mother contacting our nonprofit organization Little Baby Face Foundation (LBFF). We provide free plastic surgery to children like Samantha whose families cannot afford treatment. LBFF raises donations for the child, plus one parent, to travel to New York City and we cover all medical-related expenses. Our team of gifted plastic surgeons operate on the children free-of-charge at Lenox Hill Hospital, one of the world’s finest facilities.
Good Morning America‘s show covered the topic of plastic surgery as a viable answer for kids born with deformities. Children with birth defects tend to be ostracized and become the butt of cruel jokes. This can create emotional scars that greatly damage a child’s self-esteem. Plastic Reconstructive Surgery is one way to protect deformed children from being bullied.
The founder of LBFF, Dr. Thomas Romo, III, is a world-renowned facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has assembled a talented team of specialist doctors who donate their time to provide surgical services to LBFF patients.
One of our many dedicated LBFF Medical Advisory Board members, Dr. Steven Pearlman, provided Samantha’s surgery pro bono. She underwent two related procedures. First was a general surgery called an otoplasty. Dr. Pearlman said, “We set back the ear and make it look more natural and normal.” The other procedure was on her right ear to straighten it and prevent it from drooping. Both surgeries have a very high success rate.
ABC’s TV video instantly went viral on the Web. It spread rapidly throughout top news sites including Huffingpost.com, Yahoo.com and the Daily News and appeared on countless blogs. Within two days the video was viewed at least 30,000 times. Visits to our website skyrocketed. There was an inpouring of applications from parents of children with birth defects. Most of these families cannot afford the necessary surgeries and many insurance plans refuse to cover what they deem “cosmetic surgery.” Little Baby Face Foundation’s mission is to help as many children as we can raise funds for. With this new avalanche of applications we will need to work even harder raising donations and grants.
LBFF is unique because instead of sending doctors to patients, we bring the children here. This way we have more doctors available to provide free surgery and it can be done in the highest quality facility. Our main areas of focus are cleft lip/cleft palate, facial palsy, hemifacial microsomia, microtia, otoplasty and hearing restoration. To learn more please visit littlebabyface.org. Help us help them!