Plastic surgeon revisits source of his professional inspiration
Dr. Joe Gryskiewicz, a cosmetic surgeon in Burnsville, is pictured with a cleft lip patient he treated on one of his medical missions to Lima, Peru. Submitted photo
Dr. Gryskiewicz operates on South American children with cleft lip, cleft palate
by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers
At his cosmetic surgery practice in Burnsville, Joseph Gryskiewicz’s most common procedure is what he calls the “mommy makeover” — post-childbirth work on tummies and breasts.
Once a year he travels to South America, where he treats only children and revisits what inspired him to become a plastic surgeon.
Gryskiewicz left on Jan. 23 for a week in Lima, Peru, where he and a team of 40 Twin Cities medical professionals will treat children with cleft lip and cleft palate.
Gryskiewicz, part of a medical mission called San Francisco de Asis, has made more than 20 such trips since opening his practice in 1985.
“For the cleft lip, you can change a whole kid’s life in a one-hour operation,” the 61-year-old Minneapolis resident said. “I’m hooked on it. That’s what keeps me coming back.”
After earning a nursing degree in 1972 through the College of St. Catherine, Gryskiewicz spent six months as a medical volunteer in a remote, mountainous region of Guatemala. Working with Central American Mayan Indian children at an orphanage, he was shocked by the incidence of cleft lip, cleft palate and other deformities.
“That pushed me into plastic surgery,” said Gryskiewicz, who was accepted to the University of Minnesota Medical School while working in Guatemala.
He opened his practice in Burnsville in what is now Prince of Peace Lutheran Church’s Family Life Center. Since 1987 the practice has been in the Ridgeview Medical building. He served for many years as the “point person” for plastic surgery in the emergency room of Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. Gryskiewicz is also a former chief of surgery at Fairview Southdale in Edina.
In South America, cleft lip and cleft palate — fissures or openings in tissue that form before birth — take a far greater toll than in the United States, where about one in 700 newborns is afflicted.
“The incidence there is more like one in 150,” Gryskiewicz said. “The other thing is, medical care isn’t as readily available. … Even though it’s socialized medicine, it’s sort of a two-tiered system where if you’ve got the money, you’ll be treated. If you haven’t got the money, you’ll never get in.”
During his stays in Lima, families have traveled up to 36 hours by bus for the free treatments, Gryskiewicz said.{mospagebreak}
“There’s kind of a gene pool that produces this, and it’s much more common in South America because of the Indian population,” he said. “And there’s also malnutrition. There’s inbreeding. There’s all of the above put together, and bad luck.
“In terms of the cleft lip, it’s a very unsightly deformity. Many times these kids are shunned by society, and they’re really on the fringe. Some of them don’t even go to school because of this.”
Even more serious is cleft palate, a hole in the roof of the mouth that interferes with eating.
“Food goes up into the nose and up into the ear canals,” Gryskiewicz said. “(Sufferers) lose their hearing. And, of course, they can’t speak intelligibly.”
Fixing the problem with existing tissue takes about an hour and a half, Gryskiewicz said.
“But that’s just closing the hole,” he added. “Then you might need some bone grafting later on to help the teeth, or you might need some additional tissue brought in from the back of the throat to help with your speech.”
Cleft lip carries fewer complications. South American children generally have full lips and plenty of tissue with which to close the gap, Gryskiewicz said.
“The neatest thing is to have them look at themselves in the mirror and see themselves for the first time with a completely formed upper lip where everything’s in place,” he said. “It’s very touching.”
John Gessner is at burnsville.thisweek@ecm-inc.com.
