The wind howled and the snow was falling like feathery white blankets piling one on top of another. The blizzard was one of the worst in history for South Jersey when all of a sudden, Kim’s water broke. Panicked by the thought of trying to get out into the 25 inches of snow that had already fallen, her husband Mike furiously shoveled for 45 minutes to get the car out to get his wife to the hospital.
Luckily, they made it.
Kim labored for several hours until a C-section would be necessary. Their baby boy entered the world, but the doctors weren’t cheering. They were rushing to have him examined. The storm for Kim and Mike was about to take a turn for the worse. When Kim and Mike first laid eyes on their baby, they knew something was wrong. Their child had a hole in his lip; he was born with a condition called cleft lip and cleft palate.
Kim was devastated.
“I had the perfect pregnancy. I was never sick and never suspected anything was wrong with my baby. I was shocked beyond words when I saw his face for the first time. How could this be?”
Kim’s reaction is normal for parents who are unaware their child has a birth defect. “Many parents experience a wide range of emotions for the first few weeks when seeing their child with deformities,” said Marilyn Cohen, Director of the Cleft and Craniofacial Program at Cooper since it was established in 1979. “Parents have to figure out how to feed the child, and they want answers quickly.”
The storm was no deterrent for Marilyn as she received the call from Cape May Regional hospital that they had a family who needed the services of Cooper’s Cleft and Craniofacial Program, the only one of its kind in South Jersey. The next morning Marilyn drove to the hospital, while most roads were still closed from the storm, to meet with Kim, Mike and their newborn son.
“It was life altering to meet Marilyn,” remarked Kim. “I had no idea what to expect – would he be like this forever, would he ever be able to eat or drink on his own? Could I breast feed him like I had planned?”
Over the next several hours Marilyn answered all their questions – the most important one was letting them understand he will live a normal life and we are going to help him get there.
Aside from the cleft lip and cleft palate, Braden had no other health problems when he was born.
Kim was unable to breast feed because there was no suction in his mouth; so she was taught how to prepare the nipple of a bottle and a special way to feed him. He came home from the hospital eating and gaining weight. Kim pumped her breast milk for 11 months to ensure he was getting the nutrition she wanted him to have.
At just eight weeks old, Braden underwent his first surgery to repair his lip and nose by plastic surgeon Martha S. Matthews, MD, Clinical Director of the Cooper Cleft and Craniofacial Program. Dr. Matthews has been working with patients with facial deformities for more than 20 years.
“Children are extremely resilient and they do very well with these surgeries. Most often minimal scars are left and as the children’s faces grow, they become less and less apparent to the eye,” says Dr. Matthews.
Her tears were falling when Kim looked at him for the first time after surgery, “It was like seeing him for the first time because I had gotten used to seeing him with his cleft lip. He was beautiful.”
The unique function of the Cleft and Craniofacial program at Cooper allows families to see all the specialists and consult physicians – including plastic surgeons; orthodontists; ear, nose and throat specialists; geneticists and other counselors all at one location. Kim and her family would visit the interdisciplinary clinic in Moorestown, N.J., to discuss Braden’s progress and the next steps in his care.
A few months later, his palate in his mouth was then operated on successfully. “There are always things you are learning with each milestone,” said Kim. “He was nine months old and had to re-learn how to drink a bottle because he now had the ability to suck normally.”
Today, Braden is a happy and normally developed three year old who loves trucks and cars. He has had other surgeries, including ear tubes, and at age six will require some repair to his jaw to help his teeth form properly.
“No one would know he was born with a cleft lip, his scar is so minimal today,” says Kim.
Kim and her husband hope to have another child in the future and are currently researching the details of birth defects in a second child. Cleft abnormalities can be passed on through family. Kim did not know until after Braden was born that she had a family history of cleft palate. “In those days, they hid from society. I’m so blessed that Braden will live a normal life.”