improv is good for you

In my life, there are three “Dr. Huangs,” but the one you see here — my dad — is the granddaddy of ’em all. Last week, he was on the local news in Houston for a split second as part of KHOU-TV’s report on the reopening of The Shriners Hospital for Children in Galveston. Shriners Hospital, which was closed temporarily due to damages caused by Hurricane Ike, is world-reknown for its pediatric-burn care facilities. My dad, a plastic surgeon, has been treating kids there for many years, and the 6-year-old boy featured in the video, Henry Bautista, is one of his many hundreds of burn patients. Henry’s face and hands were disfigured due to burn injuries suffered as an infant, but about four days prior to this video, my dad had reconstructed a small “button nose” out of existing nasal tissue and skin grafts so that Henry might feel a little bit more normal among his peers. In the video, you can see a discoloration of his nose due to scabbing, which will eventually fall off. But the button nose is a temporary solution as Henry is still growing. He won’t receive a more fully sculpted nose until he is 16. I asked my dad how long it took him to build the nose: 32 minutes.