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‘The sky is the limit’: 23 surgeries in the first 19 years of life leads to a medical career

Patel shows Kruse images on computer
Riley Kruse, now a pre-med student, was born two months early in 2005 with a condition called hemifacial microsomia.
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One former St. Louis Children’s Hospital patient has turned her struggles into a calling that’s changing lives.

Riley Kruse, now a pre-med student, was born two months early in 2005 with a condition called hemifacial microsomia.

Dr. Kamlesh Patel, a pediatric plastic surgeon at the hospital, explains, “Hemifacial microsomia can in most cases involve the jaw, meaning one side of the jaw is a little bit smaller and you can have variations of that between just a bit smaller versus segments that are missing.”