Hospital boosts plastic-surgery expertise

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island Hospital has hired two new plastic surgeons who specialize in the treatment of pediatric head and face (craniofacial) deformities such as cleft lip, cleft palate, reconstruction and other challenging cases, adding to a team that includes more than 14 specialties.
Established in 1960, the hospital’s craniofacial surgery program is a multidisciplinary group of pediatric specialists, including plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons, dentists, orthodontists, geneticists, speech pathologists, psychiatrists and others.
“Pediatric craniofacial surgery is a delicate discipline, and there are many emotional issues for both patients and families due to the obvious complexities,” said Dr. Thomas F. Tracy Jr., pediatric surgeon-in-chief of Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
The new hires, Dr. Stephen R. Sullivan and Dr. Helena O.B. Taylor, show a “level of compassion” and expertise that “is sure to be a tremendous benefit to patients,” Tracy added. “They will also make important contributions in burn care, facial trauma and vascular anomalies as members of those established surgical teams at Hasbro.”
Dr. Robert B. Klein, pediatrician-in-chief, said the two doctors’ “exceptional reputations” will also help Hasbro attract patients “from around the state and region.”
Sullivan and Taylor, both of whom are now living in Providence, will also both serve as assistant professors of plastic surgery and pediatrics at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
Sullivan was previously at Children’s Hospital Boston, where he served as a pediatric plastic and craniomaxillofacial surgery fellow. He was also an associate surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor in the department of surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgery and the Wound Healing Society, and he is also a surgeon with Partners in Health in Haiti.
Taylor came from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where she completed a fellowship in pediatric craniomaxillofacial surgery.