Chloe loves piano, art class, and Sour Patch Kids. She speaks confidently, laughs easily, and has plans to become an art teacher. None of this was guaranteed when she arrived in the United States at age 4.
Adopted from China, Chloe was born with bilateral cleft lip and palate — a condition that affects roughly 1 in 1,700 babies in the U.S. It sounds straightforward until you learn what it actually means: eating is painful, speaking is difficult, and the condition ripples through multiple body systems as a child grows. For Chloe's family, the first month home was spent not settling in, but building a medical care plan. That plan led them to Shriners Children's.
What Specialized Care Actually Looks Like
Cleft lip and palate isn't a one-surgery fix. It requires coordination across multiple specialists — surgeons, speech therapists, dentists, audiologists — working together over years. Shriners Children's provides all of this under one system, which matters enormously for families already managing the stress of a child's complex condition.
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Start Your News DetoxWhat makes Shriners Children's different is financial: they provide care regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. Last year alone, they performed over 24,000 surgeries and welcomed 62,000 new patients. They've also expanded beyond their U.S. hospitals, running international outreach clinics and telehealth services in underserved regions. This scale of care — free, comprehensive, and reaching across borders — exists because of donor support.
For Chloe, that meant multiple surgeries, speech therapy, and dental work. Her mom, Casey, watched her daughter transform: "I want Chloe to be confident with herself and her speech. Shriners Children's has gone a long way in helping us get there."
The transformation isn't just medical. Chloe can now pursue the things that matter to her — creating art, imagining herself as a teacher, planning a trip to China to see where she was born. The care she received didn't just repair a physical condition. It removed the barrier between her and her own future.
Thousands of children pass through Shriners Children's each year with similar stories. The hospital continues expanding its reach, particularly into regions where specialized pediatric care is scarce.
