That South Florida is among the plastic surgery capitals of the world can be depressing, so it bears mentioning when our local surgeons apply their skills for more than just a patient's narcissism. Like in this month's edition of Glamour magazine, which has a tear-jerking cover story about 20-something triplets who survived a fire as toddlers but were badly burned. The article's here, but skip to the fourth page for West Palm dermatologist Jill Waibel swooping in for the rescue. A portion of that section below.
This past summer, the three sisters took another step in their healing process. Chandra had stumbled on a Web video of a doctor who had used new laser treatments to dramatically improve the facial scarring of a woman who'd been burned in a grease fire. She shared the video with her sisters, and, in the middle of the night, Trae left a message for the doctor asking for help. A few weeks later, the girls drove, along with their grandmother, for two days straight, to make their appointment in West Palm Beach, Florida.
It came as some surprise to dermatologist Jill Waibel, M.D., that the appointment turned out to be for three identical triplets, not just the young woman who'd left the message. She started by asking how they got their burn scars. "And then all three of them started telling their story--we were all crying," she recalls. "You couldn't not cry. With burn patients, every day they look in the mirror, they think of that fire. It's a daily reminder. People aren't always kind, and the survivors have to explain over and over in their life where that burn came from. It's an extra burden for them to carry around."
Waibel's special weapon is the Lumenis laser, which you can learn about here. After the jump, the triplets' appearance on the Today Show.
