Cleft lip and palate and plastic surgery at Shriners Children's Ohio

LaTasha:

My name is Latasha and this is Ava Lynn, and she is being treated at Shriners Ohio. We found out at our 20 week ultrasound, at the body scan of our 20 week ultrasound, that she was going to have cleft lip palate. We had no idea when she came out what she would look like, how severe it would be, but we knew that she would be in great hands at Shriners.

Scott Rapp:

What separates the Shriners Children Ohio system from the other children hospitals that I work in, it's really the multidisciplinary care and the ability to start a plan and complete it no matter what is involved.

With plastic surgery you really treat all the entire body. We really have to be experts in anatomy, because we do address all aspects of patient care. Cleft lip and palate is an entity where one in 500 children are born with. It's very common actually.

Christopher Gordon:

Cleft lip and palate is kind of it's own subspecialty in our field, where babies are born with either a missing portion of the lip and nose, and then down in the bone and the teeth, and then the palate itself is divided in half. Sometimes that goes along with a very small jaw, which can cause other problems like feeding problems, airway problems.

LaTasha:

He really took us and he said, "Stop worrying. It's going to be okay, trust me." So from that point on we just kind of trusted him. We've asked so many questions, but he was always there to answer any of the questions that we had.

Scott Rapp:

The greatest single benefit that I feel is that they're able to walk in and to look at what needs to be accomplished, to be able to never have to think about anything else except for what's at the best interest of the patient.

Christopher Gordon:

It creates a camaraderie and a team feeling that I've never really seen anywhere else. You just got a really dedicated group of people who love what they're doing.

Amanda Fields:

What we find is meeting families where they are, making sure their basic needs are taken care of, and just making sure that they're comfortable so that they know that we are treating their child just like we would treat our child.

Scott Rapp:

It's really every single person that they encounter makes them feel special. So for them to at least feel a little bit more at home, a little more safe with us, then I think that really translates to their outcome, and it's not just the technical surgical outcome. It's the overall outcome for the patients and their families.

LaTasha:

We didn't expect to have such amazing nurses and doctors, but when we found Shriners it's truly life changing, not only for her, but for all of us, and it's just been... It's made all the difference in her recovery and in our life.