Fresh Start Surgical Gifts: Everyone Deserves a Second Chance

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.

“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.

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.

By Padma Nagappan