Raising awareness about the facial variations that millions of infants are born with is a unique and personal mission for a family of Delaware doctors.
Nemours Children’s Hospital is sponsoring the Blue Rocks game on Thursday, which will feature patients with cleft problems. One small boy will take center stage.
Dr. E.J. Caterson has a photo of his 10-year-old son hanging in his office at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Delaware, taken before he underwent surgery to fix his cleft lip.
“It’s just something that makes you special,” Charlie Caterson remarked.
This is a unique family story with an ironic twist.
E.J. Caterson of Nemours Children’s Hospital met his wife while doing humanitarian work for Operation Smile, an international organization that restores cleft lips and palates.
“It is one of the most common congenital abnormalities in the world,” E.J. Caterson explained.
E.J. Caterson and his wife Stephanie decided to become plastic surgeons as a result of their experience, and they later welcomed their son Charlie.
“What are the chances that two plastic surgeons will have a child with a cleft lip?” E.J. Caterson explained.
Those are tiny odds, but they spurred the Catersons to quit Harvard and relocate to Delaware, where E.J. Caterson is now the chief of cosmetic surgery at Nemours and frequently performs cleft surgery.
“The ability to change somebody’s life in a 45-minute, hour-and-a-half surgery is such a powerful difference,” he told me.
Charlie, who is entering fourth grade, says he considers his restored lip a badge of honor.
“I’m living a really good life, and it makes me feel stronger about myself,” the 10-year-old stated.
He enjoys a nice life in which he enjoys summer activities with his two brothers and prepares to throw out the first pitch at the upcoming Blue Rocks game in honor of National Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness Month.
“I am very honored, and I can’t wait,” Charlie Caterson said before throwing out the first pitch at the Blue Rocks game.
A small boy altered his parents’ lives, and now they’re committed to helping others.
On Thursday night, many other Nemours cleft patients will join the Catersons in Wilmington for their game against the Hudson Valley Renegades.