inspiration
Reason to smile
Kinnelon ’ s Brady Hishmehhelps other youngpeople cope with cleftpalates WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER
In 2014 , former Kinnelon resident Brady Hishmeh was going through a rough time . His cleft palate prompted stares from his fellow high school students , making him uncomfortable in his own skin . Hishmeh was born with a bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate — when the roof of the mouth has an opening that connects with an opening in the gums and the lip , leaving ahole between the nose and the mouth .
Then Hishmeh took atrip to astudent leadership conference in Limerick , Ireland , and his life changed . Organized by Operation Smile , anonprofit that provides reparative cleft lip and palate surgeries to
SAY CHEESE Hishmeh , also in inset , smiles on abag of Lay ’ s children worldwide , the gathering brought together other teens born with cleft
Hishmeh ’ s parents broached the palates , making him feel accepted subject of going on the trip by noting and at ease . “ It was the first place I that one ofhis former surgeons went towhere no one held their gaze volunteered for the group . By the too long ,” says Hishmeh , now 22 and time he was inhigh school , Hishmeh asenior at the University ofRhode had been under the knife with plenty Island . “ No one was asking what of them . At six months old , he says , was wrong with me .” The experience he had lip repair surgery , and a led to anew mission for him : To palate repair operation between the help other young people and to raise ages of six months and ayear . In awareness about what it ’ s like tolive third grade , he endured abone graft with acleft palate . to the jaw line using bone from his hip , and had a hard retainer inserted to expand his palate . “ For four months , I had a hard retainer covering my teeth and palate ,” he says . “ Every morning in third grade , my mom would take a screw and screw it in . It hurt for about an hour , and Ihad to be on asoft liquid diet for four-to-six months . I also had to wear headgear that pressed into my forehead . I ended up needing another bone graft surgery .”
All of his early surgeries , he says , were performed at Shriners Hospital in Portland , Oregon , where specialists are practiced in treating cleft palates . At the Colorado hospital where he was born , Hishmeh says , the doctor who would have performed his first operation was a plastic surgeon who specialized in breast implants .
LEADERSHIP ROLE AT OPERATION SMILE
While at the Operation Smile student leadership conference in Limerick , Hishmeh says he realized how fortunate he was to have access to quality medical care . He also learned that students could have an on-going role in the organization as health care educators . After spending a training weekend in Virginia Beach , he was selected
LAY ’ S : COURTESY OFLAY ’ S ; HEADSHOT : COURTESY OFOPERATION SMILE
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HOLIDAY 2020 WAYNE MAGAZINE