Inspirational Patient of the Week

On May 24th, 2001 a nervous first time mom, named Maggie, put her baby son Donald under the care of Drs. Cohen and Melzer at Rady’s Children Hospital. Don was born with metopic craniosynostosis, a condition in which premature fusion of the metopic suture causes the forehead to have a triangular shape. In more serious cases like Don’s, metopic craniosynostosis can lead to problems with vision, learning, behavior and in rare cases, can cause increased pressure inside the skull with possible brain damage.

At the time, metopic craniosynostosis required a highly invasive procedure to correct the deformity, which involved breaking of the skull and orbital bones into fragments repositioned into the desired shape. For Don, Dr. Cohen used a new, but much less-invasive technique. Channel 8 News stood by as baby Donald underwent the first endoscopic fronto-orbital advancement and cranial reshaping ever performed. Dr. Cohen corrected his facial abnormalities by placing small incisions along the crease of the eyelid like a cosmetic eyelid incision and another small incision behind the hairline in the scalp. The procedure was a success and Don recovered with no deficits.

His then anxious mom Maggie explained, “I know for me it was very difficult to see my baby after surgery, but with Dr. Cohen’s amazing bedside manner he took the time to provide comfort to me and my family during such a pivotal time.”

As you can see from the picture, Don shows no signs that he underwent such a major surgery as a baby. We were thrilled when Maggie reported that her son just made the U-18 Arsenal Club soccer team! What an accomplishment that is; GO DON! Many thanks to Maggie and her wonderful family for sharing their story and updating us on what a handsome talented guy Donald has turned out to be.

We received the update from Maggie in response to our previous Inspirational Patient post. Her kind words read,

“I wanted to send a picture of my son today and hope that Dr. Cohen could see what an amazing artist, plastic surgeon I find him to be.  He truly is blessed with a gift that has changed the life of my son for the better.   After reading the below article, I realized its never to late to say… Thank you !”

If someone in your family has undergone life-changing surgery(s), please feel free to update us on where the patient is now! We absolutely love seeing, hearing, and sharing the success stories of these courageous hearts. 

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