Restoring faces, transforming lives.

Susan Schwartz's vacations are usually not very relaxing. Most of the time they are nothing but hard work. But Susan wouldn’t have it any other way.

Unlike other New Yorkers who fly south to spend time on a beach, Susan spends her vacations in remote hospitals helping to change the lives of children. Together with a team of specialists from the United States, Susan volunteers her time and talents as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist to provide free reconstructive surgery for children who are born with facial deformities.

Her most recent missions took her to Honduras and to Ecuador, where facial deformities – such as microtia or severe cleft lips and palates – are common, due to such factors as high altitude, malnutrition, lack of prenatal care, limited genetic pool or other unknown causes. Surgeons in these countries unfortunately do not have the training needed to correct such anomalies. And even if they did have such skills, most parents in these countries could never afford such complicated procedures – which for the rebuilding of an external ear can incur a series of operations over a lengthy period of time.

For parents constantly struggling to feed their families, such operations are considered a luxury. But for the children so affected, they are a necessity. People with deformities are often shunned and discriminated against. For these children, life can be very cruel. They are mocked and taunted by other children, which often leads them to stop attending school. In extreme cases, these children live in a state of total isolation, hidden away by their embarrassed parents. Furthermore, those born with a cleft lip, a cleft palate or without an external ear often have serious problems with speech development, severe dental complications, or even the inability to eat normally.

After reconstructive surgery, these children and their families have the feeling that they have been given a new life, with possibilities that were out of their reach before. Little girls can put their hair up in ponytails rather than using it to hide a missing ear – thus helping them to fit in with their peers, and so build self-esteem.

These significant first steps toward a normal life are the reason why Susan Schwartz would rather spend her vacations in operating rooms than in all-inclusive beach resorts.