Fresh Start Gives Free Surgeries to Children with Physical Deformities

One month after Callie Ann Daugherty was born, her mother noticed a lump behind her ear. As Callie Ann grew, the lump kept growing, eventually covering the entire lower part of her face. It turned out be a hemangioma, a vascular tumor caused by weak blood vessels that left her face and lower lips deformed.

Her mother sought help through many avenues, but was turned away because they had no health insurance and did not qualify for state help, since her income was above the stipulated limit.

But when Callie Ann was about four years old, her luck turned for the better: Her mother found out about Fresh Start Surgical Gifts , a non-profit organization that offers free reconstructive plastic surgery and post-operative care to disadvantaged children and youth with physical deformities. Callie Ann’s mother sent in an application for help, and the child’s case was accepted. Raise money for this non-profit and other non-profits.

“I had what looked like massive sores that mangled my lower lip. They had to reconstruct my bottom line. Fresh Start also took care of the transport, our hotel stay and some of the food expenses when we went for my surgeries. I’ve had more than a dozen surgeries over the years,” says Daugherty, now 16.

Fresh Start’s founder, Dr. Denis Nigro, a plastic surgeon, began performing free surgery in the late 1980s for patients in Mexico, when a fellow surgeon asked him to help out. He later brought the idea over to San Diego, where he felt the patients could be tracked better. Since its inception in 1991, Carlsbad, California-based Fresh Start has performed over $16 million worth of free medical services, giving over 4,500 children the chance of a new beginning.

Several factors make this organization stand apart from other medical non-profits. Medical services are offered only in San Diego, and patients from across the U.S and around the world are brought to their clinic, in order to ensure better control over quality. 100 percent of the contributions received go directly towards patient care.

The surgeries are not one-time procedures—patients may undergo multiple surgeries until the end result is achieved. Fresh Start adopts a multi-disciplinary approach to care, providing dental procedures, laser treatments and speech therapy, in addition to surgery.

“We don’t do things halfway. We are committed to them throughout their care. Some kids have been with us for years, like burn patients,” says Dr. Michael Brucker, a volunteer surgeon who has been with Fresh Start since 2002.

“It is a 7 week planning process, so we have surgeries every 7th weekend. On a typical surgery weekend, 36 surgeries are performed by volunteer surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses in a medical facility that we rent at a discounted rate,” says Shari Brasher, CEO and Executive Director of Fresh Start.

Fresh Start has a core group of 6 volunteer surgeons, 10 anesthesiologists and 30-35 nurses, in addition to other medical staff such as eye surgeons who are brought in as needed.

“We’ve been very fortunate that people are charitable enough to give us their time and they look for opportunities to volunteer their services. We’ve rarely had to recruit staff, they’ve usually found us,” Brasher says.

Although Fresh Start currently provides operations only on weekends, that’s about to change: the group recently partnered with Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, and will soon open a state-of-the-art clinic on the hospital premises, which will allow the organization to provide services throughout the entire week. Brasher hopes that this collaboration will allow Fresh Start to reach out to more patients, more frequently.

For patients to qualify for Fresh Start’s services, they must be under 24 and unable to pay for the surgery personally or through their insurance. Procedures such as these typically cost at least $70,000, an amount that many families cannot afford to pay out-of-pocket, even with a good income.

Once eligibility is determined, patients are evaluated and the staff arranges for them to get lab work done. The medical committee meets once a month to discuss cases. For patients who live far away or out of the country, it may take more than one seven-week cycle to make all the arrangements such as travel, accommodations, time off from work for parents and alternative care for other children.

Daugherty and her family live in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but went to San Diego for treatment each summer, when she was off from school. While growing up, she says, it was hard to go out in public because people would stare.

“I cried but it made me stronger. When I go to Fresh Start, it makes me put things in perspective—when I see other patients with much more serious problems, I feel grateful. I’ve grown up knowing that who you are inside really matters,” says Daugherty.

She was recently evaluated and told she would not need any more surgeries, only a laser treatment that would burn layers off the skin and leave it smooth.

“It’s been a long road but I am glad it’s coming to a close with these final details. What I really want is for anyone who has a child needing surgery—if they’ve been denied, I hope they read about me and approach Fresh Start. They are wonderful,” says Daugherty.

Make a donation to Fresh Start through Razoo.

By Padma Nagappan

Photos of Callie Ann Daugherty, as a baby before surgical treatment and today.