Dr Ransom with a girl patient Each year, tens of thousands of children worldwide are born with facial birth defects, including congenital anomalies such as cleft lip, cleft palate, and microtia (small, malformed, or even absent external ear). In our country, medical expertise and resources are available in nearly all cases. In other parts of the world, however, these children are often left untreated – and face a lifetime of difficulty and discrimination. For each of these birth defects, social stigma can be crippling. And for cleft lip and palate patients, feeding and developmental problems can lead to malnutrition, delayed speech, and even abandonment.

Dr. Ransom is proud to dedicate a week of his time every year to helping these children. In addition to previous volunteer and medical education missions to Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, and Thailand, he is an attending surgeon on an annual trip to northwest Peru. In this area, cleft lip and cleft palate are endemic, and a largely poor and indigenous population has little access to modern healthcare. As part of a medical team organized by Healing the Children, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the medical, dental, and surgical care of children abroad, Dr. Ransom performs pro bono surgeries for babies and children with facial birth defects, congenital lesions, and burns. For more information about Healing the Children, please visit their website at www.HTCNorCal.org. Please visit the Photo Gallery to see some pictures from recent missions to South America and Southeast Asia.

Through the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS), Dr. Ransom has worked with the Face to Face program, which provides surgical and non-surgical treatment for facial injuries resulting from domestic violence, and the Faces of Honor program, which provides pro bono surgery for soldiers who have suffered facial, head, and neck injuries in the line of duty. 

To learn more about these charitable organizations, please visit the AAFPRS site at www.aafprs.org/humanitarian/pa_humprog.html and Operation Access at www.operationaccess.org. To inquire about a consultation for any of these services, please call 415-550-1077 or click here to e-mail us.

 

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Dr. Evan Ransom is an Ivy League-educated and Ivy League trained Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon. He is a Double Board Certified Head and Neck Surgeon and Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and fellowship-trained in facial plastic, reconstructive, and laser surgery. His practice is in the San Francisco Bay Area, serving patients from San Francisco, Oakland, Marin County, Palo Alto, Silicon Valley, Walnut Creek, the East Bay, and all over Northern California.