Our Team
Birth-related defects involving the face, skull and body are seen by nearly every pediatrician, family physician and obstetrician. The impact of an other-than normal child can be emotionally devastating for the parents and an enormous challenge for the primary care physician as they combine efforts to both alter the appearance of the deformity and reduce the functional impact that it may have on the affected child. In a society that places high value on normalcy, any variation or difference can set the altered child apart. Therefore it is important both for the parent and child, along with the primary care physician, to have a "team" that can bring a coordinated and appropriately timed effort to focus on the anomaly to be treated.
In the late 1960's, Children's Medical Center of Dallas and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas joined forces to establish a program for children with craniofacial abnormalities. Several decades and thousands of surgeries later, those efforts have resulted in one of the largest pediatric craniofacial treatment programs in the nation.
Among the various types of anomalies that may be seen, cleft lip with or without cleft palate, facial paralysis, hemangiomas, vascular malformations, ear deformities, and craniosynostosis and related skull deformities will be the subject of this web site. The coordination of the primary care physician and the plastic surgeon, as the director of the Craniofacial Team, will most often provide the basis for the correction of these often-devastating deformities. Any physician who has dealt with a family facing a deformity well understands both their anguish and their subsequent happiness when successful treatment allows the child to grow to adulthood with minimal functional and appearance problems.
Over the last 25 years, the quality of treatment for children with facial clefting deformities has benefited from improved surgical techniques, understanding of the anatomical defects and the impact of growth, and the formation of interdisciplinary teams that provide the wide range of services necessary to meet the complex needs of these children and families. From the moment of birth, the team involvement via initiation by the primary care physician will set the stage for the successful outcome of a long process through childhood to adulthood. The Craniofacial Team at Medical City Children's Hospital includes the following specialties:
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The Team members most involved with the necessary treatment planning, surgery and evaluation meet with the family on a regular basis to coordinate the treatment needs and address the timing of these treatments for the benefit of the child and family. Other team members may be seen as consultants on an "as needed" basis and these are scheduled at the families' convenience.
The non-physician team members you may encounter most frequently are:
- Rachel Zimmerman- Cleft Team Coordinator & Pediatric Reconstruction Team Coordinator
- Leesa Thompson - Craniofacial Team Coordinator
- Suzanne Appell - Surgical Coordinator
- Kerri Mitchell - Billing and Financial Manager
- Jessie Vance - Surgery Scheduler for Dr. Byrd and Dr. Ha
- Gerry Cooper - Surgery Scheduler for Dr. A. Jay Burns and Dr. John Burns
