FAMILY PAGE

                                                                               

BEWARE...”THE PROFESSIONAL”…..By  Johanna Gambale

 

My son Nicholas, aged 2 ½, was born with an incomplete unilateral cleft lip and palate.  Seeing him through the challenges he has faced has been the most enriching experience of my life.  It has also taught me an extremely valuable lesson... to watch out for the “professionals” who pose as “experts”.

 When Nick was born via C-section, his cleft was discovered.  A nurse, the “professional”, walked my husband out of the room and told him that this was a mid-line defect most assuredly associated with the brain and heart, information which was absolutely devastating to my husband.  Meanwhile, the Neonatologist in the delivery room assured me that the cleft was likely an isolated condition and that Nick was perfectly healthy.  Guess who was correct?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Text Box: Later, a lactation consultant tried to guilt this new mother into breast-feeding my baby. When guilt didn’t work, she decided to force the issue by removing all of the Haberman Feeder bottles from the room. The starving baby became jaundiced. The Pediatrician brought back the bottles and encouraged me to pump my breast milk. Shortly afterward, I went to a plastic surgeon, specializing in breast augmentation, who told me that no surgery should be performed until Nick was 5 YEARS OLD! He further advised me to seek counseling for Nick and me to help deal with the ridicule we would undoubtedly face. Appalled, I then went to see Dr. Anthony Wolfe at Miami Children’s Hospital, a specialist in cleft repair, who performed beautiful surgery at 6 months of age. Finally, after my son’s palate was repaired, we had him evaluated for speech therapy by a professional who told us he didn’t qualify for therapy because he was so smart and had such a vast vocabulary. Fortunately we found another Speech Pathologist who has devoted much of her career to helping children with clefts. She recognized immediately that Nick needed therapy. "It doesn’t matter how many words you know, if no one can understand you when you say them." So far she has helped save hi from another surgery for hypernasality. We don’t know what the future holds for Nick, but we are thankful to have found several true "experts" along the way to help us. Nick is an intelligent, articulate, imaginative and fun-loving little guy who seems destined for greatness! To all the other parents out there....Please don’t be fooled by the letters that follow a person’s name. If something you are told doesn’t sound or feel right, its probably not. Second opinions are so important when it comes to doing the right thing for your child. And believe me...when you are face-to-face with a true "Expert"...you’ll know it! ______________________________________________________________________________ ** If you or the parent of one of your patients have an interesting article to submit, please send it in Word format with .jpg picture files to the editor at : margiefriedman@floridacleft.org. Every effort will be made to include relevant information!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back Next

Home Newsletter Hotline Contact Locations