21/03/2018
Most people instinctively comprehend the value of a face and the social & psychological impact of facial disfigurement.
Sadly in SA, medical funders and health policy in general place very little value on the faces of South Africans, even though it constitutes a large portion of the disease burden in the country.
Patients with horrific injuries, disfiguring diseases, developmental abnormalities and tumours are often condemned to sub-optimal constraints of treatment imposed by the callous (often ignorant) policies of private third party funders and government funding .
Due to public sensitivity at seeing facial disfigurement and the unwillingness to be exposed to the gritty reality of the surgery required, surgeons are hamstrung into sanitising the topic and keeping it hidden. This has led to very little public awareness and even less advocacy for the victims.
In a world obsessed with beauty, living with a disfigured face means living with other people's prejudices.
