Jesse

So there’s this kid named Jesse who, out of all the patients at the clinic, was the most outgoing of them all. I thought to myself this kid MUST have his surgery done. The world needs a child as bright as Jesse, and with a sealed cleft, I thought he’d shine even brighter.

There were about 90 adults and children screened this past Sunday and unfortunately only 60 would be operated. Faces of Tomorrow (FOT) only had 6 days and 3 surgeons available for this mission. Giving time for about 3 surgeries per surgeon each day.

When I first met Jesse I saw him making a rubber band chain and out of all the other kids he was the least shy. When I asked him his name I couldn’t really understand since his cleft was impeding his speech. I thought he had said “GC” instead of Jesse. Brian, a FOT physician giving Jesse a fist pump above, called him “fly like a G6.”

The toughest part of the Sunday screening was in the end, when the FOT team had to decide which patents had to be turned away for this mission. All of them deserved a chance, but given the limited resources, the team decided to prioritize infants, children, and individuals who would benefit most from the surgery. Children with other disorders such as scoliosis had to be turned away from this specific mission due to possible complications during surgery, or because the other disorders might have been so grave that a cleft operation was really the least of their worries.

So what about Jesse? Despite being a bit older, he was admitted as one of the lucky 60 to have their surgeries done this week. His surgery is this Thursday and i’ll be there to see it.

Next up… the surgeries, which began yesterday and will be ending this Saturday. Stay tuned.