A Plastic Surgeon’s Foundation Gets a Facelift
Dr. Thomas Romo, III, a world-renowned plastic surgeon, founded the Little Baby Face Foundation (LBFF) in 2002. He and his dedicated team of doctors work tirelessly to donate their time and skills to help children from around the globe. LBFF’s newly redesigned website, www.littlebabyface.org, launched January 1st.
Since its inception, LBFF has changed the lives of over one hundred children. The foundation raises funds to pay for children from around the world to travel here to New York City and undergo corrective surgery. Under the direction and supervision of Dr. Romo, the foundation works with a team of medical experts in the field of pediatric facial deformities and paralysis. These experts volunteer one hundred percent of their time to evaluate and treat these kids.
Dr. Romo is the Director of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at both Lenox Hill Hospital and The Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital in New York City. LBFF’s November 2009 seventh annual fundraising gala, “Believe in Miracles,” raised more than $150,000. This year’s gala honored dentist Deborah Pilla provides dental evaluations to every child the Foundation serves. The highlight of the gala was when Moroccan-born Ahmed Al Mokhtar Zouhir stood before the crowd of more than 300 guests. He grinned and said, “I’m sorry my English not so good but I say thank you, thank you, thank you to all the wonderful people who helped me!
After the gala, Ahmed wrote a letter of gratitude [translated to English for LBFF].
I would especially like to thank Drs. Thomas Romo and Deborah Pilla for successfully reconstructing both of my ears, and my mouth. I am twenty-one years born in Rabat, Morocco, with my left ear closed and missing its lobe. I could not hear well out of that ear and it was, obviously, embarrassing to me. The condition was so obvious I heard people making jokes about me for all of my life.
In my teens, when girls did not want to spend time with me, I started staring at my image in the mirror each morning. I would ask myself: who is this funny-looking person—this odd-looking man. It was a painful way to start each day…
I remember as a child asking my mother to buy me earmuffs so I could hide my deformity…
I applied for a visa in 2001 to come to the United States to meet with Foundation staff and doctors. But the terrible events of 9/11 prevented me from doing so. My visa was denied year after year. It was not until 2007 that I was able to come to the States. I was very nervous. I wasn’t a baby any longer; I didn’t have a little baby face. I was an eighteen year old man.
Now after much difficulty, and a lot of help, the surgeries are done. I have a new ear that looks normal. Dental work I also required has begun. The physical pain I lived with every day because of my bad teeth, and the emotional pain … because of my bad ear, are behind me. I now face the future with optimism.
I will remain forever grateful to the many kind people of my new country who made this possible. I know that the brighter future I now have could only have been made possible in the United States of America. I look forward to the day, three years from now, when I can call myself a citizen of this great country.
“When you see these children,” Dr. Romo says, “after their first operation when we take off the bandages, and a child looks in a mirror for the first time, the joy in their smiles and their mother cries, it is incredible. Usually the whole room is crying.”
“Reconstruction of a congenital facial birth defect is one of the most gratifying of all surgeries.” says Dr. Romo. “The transformation of young, shy children into proud, self-confident youngsters is truly amazing.”
In addition to his dedication to the Little Baby Face Foundation, Dr. Romo has a private practice on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 135A East 74th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. To learn more visit www.RomoPlasticSurgery.com or call 212-288-1500.
Dorri Olds (DorriOlds.com) is the owner of a web design and internet marketing company whose writing has appeared in newspapers, magazines and book anthologies.