NORFOLK, Va. - This week theater-goers will be introduced to 'Auggie' in the motion picture Wonder, but before the film hits the big screen, staff at the Craniofacial Clinic at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters are talking about their real-world work.
Wonder tells the story of August 'Auggie' Pullman, a young boy with facial differences who has been in and out of hospitals for years.
With the help of his mother, played by Julia Roberts, and his father, played by Owen Wilson, he tries to fit in at a mainstream school for the first time in his life.
A major idea of the film is that beauty is not just on the outside.
CHKD has a clinic that treats kids exactly like Auggie called the Craniofacial Clinic.
"We’re not just treating the patient, not just doing reconstructive surgery, we’re also dealing with the families too," Dr. Jesus Inciong, director of the Craniofacial Clinic, told News 3 anchor Todd Corillo.
A long-time partner of Operation Smile, CHKD's craniofacial center brings together a fully approved cleft palate-craniofacial team (CPT, CFT) that meets the standards set forth by the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association and the Cleft Palate Foundation.
Every year, the craniofacial team manages 500 patients and performs almost 200 surgical procedures.
"The surgery does a very dramatic change, but you’re not just changing the way the child looks, but you’re changing their life and changing the family too," Dr. Inciong stated.
