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SURGEON SEEKS TO RESTORE GYMNAST'S HEARING
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Suzan Filipek
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Dr. John Reinisch
GYMNAST Diego Neumaire at the championship in April.
Diego Neumaire was born without ears 11 years ago to a poor family in Mexico. Despite the odds he has excelled, winning the National Championship of the Mexican Gymnastics Federation this past April.
His story has so compelled Dr. John Reinisch that the Hancock Park resident is donating his skills as a world-class surgeon in ear reconstructive surgery. He is also on a fundraising campaign to help pay $40,000 for hospital and travel fees.
“He’s pretty impressive. He looks like an Olympian,” said Reinisch. He’s also a good candidate for the technique Dr. Reinisch started 19 years ago that streamlined the surgery; Neumaire, who was born without outer ears, has a normal inner and middle ear.
Diego is among the 10 percent of children with bilateral microtia, children who are born without both ears. In order to develop normal speech he wears a cumbersome, bone-vibrating hearing device.
“Many children with microtia are shy and introverted from their hearing loss and years of teasing at school. However, despite Diego’s visible deformity and poor hearing, he has become a spectacular gymnast,” Reinisch noted. “Diego is an amazing boy with enthusiasm, charm, talent and confidence. Although he has done remarkably well, his life with a hearing impairment and facial deformity will become increasingly more difficult as a teenager.”
The plastic surgeon became interested in ear reconstruction when he found ears often looked unrealistic after surgery. Results improved with porous polyethylene instead of the traditional method of taking a piece of the patient’s rib cartilage—which in Diego’s case would impact his gymnastic abilities. The new technique also cuts the required number of surgeries for two ears from 12 to two.
While Reinisch creates the outer ears, Dr. Joseph Roberson, a hearing specialist at the California Ear Institute in Palo Alto, will donate his services to build the ear canals and eardrum to restore hearing. “Dr. Roberson and I want to do the reconstructive surgery to help Diego reach his maximum potential in life,” Reinisch said.
The pair have teamed on several surgeries in the past six years, said Reinisch, a New England native who lives on Rimpau Blvd. with his wife Nancy.
He graduated from Harvard Medical School, and later founded the plastic surgery department at Childrens Hospital LA. As director, craniofacial and pediatric plastic surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, he performs about 400 surgeries a year, 80 of which entail ears.
Donations can be made to the Small Wonders Foundation, c/o Ed Solis, treasurer 717 Cole Ave., LA, CA 90038. The non-profit, whose purpose is to support children who need plastic surgery, was founded by parents of children that Dr. Reinisch treated.
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