When the wealthy couple saw their newborn’s face, the mother gasped, “Take him away, he’s a monster.” They abandoned him at the hospital. A kind nurse raised him. Twenty years later, the couple desperately needed a rare surgery. The world-famous surgeon walked in, revealed his birthmark, and…

morning in January, I was walking through the Manhattan annex when I witnessed something that permanently altered my perspective.

A new patient had arrived—a five-year-old girl named Sofia. She was hiding completely behind her mother’s legs in the waiting room, clutching a ratty stuffed bear. Across the entire left side of her face was a deep, aggressive continue reading …