The brave teenager was sitting in the corner of the hallway away from other children. A long, torn cloth covered his face, more specifically his mouth. After slowly approaching him, I sat down right next to him. He shifted slightly away from me with a sheepish wide asymmetric grin on his face. As I began to converse with him through a translator, it became obvious he did not want to talk directly to me. His gaze darting in every direction except towards me. His shyness was palpable.
For 16 years of his life, this kid has had to live with a complete cleft lip. Through the translators, I was told that he is extremely shy and does not like to interact with people in general that he does not know. It does not take much to figure out why. There is a gaping hole in his face that makes him look like a monster to those not used to seeing a cleft lip.
I am a plastic surgeon from New Jersey, but as a middle-aged father of two teenagers, I felt a strange affinity to this boy among all the others that I had treated all week long in this remote region of the Philippines. Puberty aside, generally teenagers are working hard to just discover themselves during this transformative period of their lives. In addition to all the usual teenage angst, this child has to deal with an un-repaired cleft lip too. What a burden that must be for him. This kid was my hero, and I let him know it.
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