The Little Baby Face Foundation (LBFF) in New York City is changing the lives of young people around the world who are born with facial defects and deformities. This foundation exclusively helps young people up to age 21 (in most cases) by giving free plastic surgery (and paid travel) in order to correct facial anomalies. Recently, the foundation was featured on a Dateline NBC special which told the stories of four kids who were all the victims of bullying due to their looks. The foundation has strict criteria on who qualifies for their services; even if a child is bullied for their looks, that child must technically have a facial deformity to qualify for pro bono surgery. The foundation literally gets hundreds of submissions a week from young people who seek pro bono surgery as they (and their families) cannot afford it. For many kids with facial anomalies, the services the Little Baby Face Foundation offers can be life changing.
The Little Baby Face Foundation takes a wide variety of cases each year, ranging from babies with cleft palates to young adults with other facial deformities. Kids even travel to New York City from other countries to undergo surgical procedures that are donated by some of New York’s leading plastic surgeons. Each submission the foundation receives is taken with real consideration.
Some conditions are extremely complex, and surgeons may have limitations on what they can do. As in the case of a girl with microphthalmia (“small eye syndrome”) who had already undergone several previous surgeries, the surgeons ultimately decided that surgery would not be successful as making her eyes any larger would prevent her from closing her eyes. Therefore, the decision was made to perform rhinoplasty surgery as well as ear pinning surgery, which would make her eyes appear larger in comparison to her (now) smaller nose and less prominent ears.
The Little Baby Face Foundation can truly change the lives of its patients for the very best. As seen in the cases that were followed by Dateline NBC, increased confidence and improved self esteem were observed in all of the children the foundation was able to help. The kids the foundation helps are the foundation’s largest supporters, and that speaks volumes.
