A LEADING PLASTIC surgeon whose clients included the late Michael Jackson could give fresh hope for a Donegal man who was born without a chin.
Alan Doherty (21) made more than half a dozen trips to the US between 2008 and 2010 for surgery, but little progress was made and he was left disappointed with the outcome.
Mr Doherty is one of only a handful of people in the world born with an extremely rare maxillofacial condition, which means he has no lower jaw.
But now he has seen leading plastic surgeon Dr Pat Treacy from the Ailesbury Clinic in Dublin, whose status as a cosmetic surgeon is such that one of his clients in 2006 and 2007 was now- deceased superstar Michael Jackson.
Mr Doherty, who cannot speak and uses a Lightwriter as well as e-mail and Facebook to communicate, felt it was a positive meeting.
He communicated that he had got on well and has to go back for a further appointment in two weeks’ time.
“Dr Tracey examined my face and jaws with his assistant doctor. He injected medicine to my right jaw, into my lower lip and to the chin,” he stated, adding that he may now go for some dental work and plastic surgery. “I am beginning to make a little progress.”
Mr Doherty’s story has attracted media attention on both sides of the Atlantic. His trips to the US were the subject of network television coverage, and featured on stations including Fox News.
Mr Doherty, who lives with his parents in Letterkenny, spent the first 15 months of his life in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. He cannot eat solids and breathes and feeds through tubes, taking specially fortified milk.
But his positive “get up and go” attitude has been key, according to Paul McBride, the driving force behind the Friends of Alan Doherty Fund, which has raised over €1 million.
But he knows not to build up his hopes. Almost exactly a year ago, he returned from the US as surgeons at the world-renowned Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York expressed the view that they could do no more for him.
Initially, hopes were high that life-changing reconstructive surgery would be successful. The first operation in Mount Sinai lasted seven hours.
A skin graft was taken from his shoulder and a piece of bone from his hip. Ultimately, though, the results were disappointing.