Surgeon’s Kindness Is More Than Skin Deep

Walk into Dr. Michael Niccole’s office in Newport Beach to have some ugly fat shaved off your hips and you’ll also see about four grand shaved from your wallet too. But then, he’s also accepting some payments these days in coconuts, or papayas.

Besides his private practice, Niccole, 53, heads the Magic Mirror Foundation, which provides free plastic surgeries to poverty-stricken youngsters, both here and abroad. For 18 years, Niccole has been part of an Orange County health team making monthly trips to clinics in Mexico. It provides free services to poor families with a wide range of medical needs. In recent years, Niccole has taken a small roadshow of plastic surgeons and technicians to Central America and South America--he’ll be back in Venezuela later this month.

But in June, Magic Mirror embarks on its most ambitious mission yet. For the first time, Niccole and at least one other plastic surgeon will take a small team to Vietnam. The plan has been several years in the making.

“Some businessmen in Little Saigon have been asking me for some time to do this,” he said. “But getting through the red tape in Vietnam has just been incredible.”

One problem was that the Vietnamese government couldn’t understand why his team wanted to come. We have our own plastic surgeons, he was told. But that attitude is so very wrong, Niccole insists. He explained:

“About one child in every 500 to 600 is born with some kind of physical deformity, quite often a cleft palate, affecting both health and appearance. In countries with high poverty, those numbers increase greatly. There are thousands and thousands of children in each of these countries with no access at all to plastic surgeons. You couldn’t pour enough surgeons into these countries to take care of the need.”

Last year, the Magic Mirror Foundation tried to set up a clinic in Indonesia. Niccole went himself to oversee it. But it was unsuccessful. The government, he said, simply wouldn’t cooperate with proper credentials.

“You think you’re all set and then one change in a local political leader and you’re out,” he said.

He’s convinced that once he gets to Vietnam, doctors there will be more cooperative than the government has been so far.

The plastic surgery business here at home is booming these days. Seems there is no shortage of people who want to improve their hips, noses, breasts or bottoms. And none of these surgeries come cheap.

“But,” Niccole said, “when you are helping a child in some tiny little makeshift operating room in a poor region--and the child’s mother offers you a smile and a coconut, or maybe a papaya, that kind of reward is special.”

Sharing the Prize: Whether you work in an office, a manufacturing plant or even your city’s police department, chances are some co-worker today or tomorrow will ask you if you want to join a pool for Wednesday night’s Lotto jackpot. It’s now up to $70 million--after six rollovers without a winner.

Last week I pointed out the numerous retailers not yet used to asking you if you want a “cash value” (lump sum up front) or 26-year-payment Lotto ticket. But reader James Gordon of Garden Grove points out my information didn’t go far enough. He’s right.

If you ask for your money in one lump sum, you’re only going to get half the amount. And that’s not even with taxes taken out. The explanation from lottery spokeswoman Norma Minas: “The other half of the jackpot (that you won’t get) consists of the interest the player would have received if the lottery had invested the net present value in U.S. Treasury Coupon Bonds and paid out the prize over 26 years.”

So be prepared to live on just $35 million minus taxes.

Writing and Reducing: Did you catch that national medical report the other day that 76% of us are overweight? Here’s a success story that might inspire you to shed some fat:

Meredith Brown, 26, of Trabuco Canyon entered a national essay contest and wrote about her weight reduction--she lost 26 pounds of fat and gained 5 pounds of muscle in 12 weeks. Don’t expect any miracle formula--strict diet and lots of exercise, she says. Here’s the inspiration part:

Brown’s essay got her chosen for a documentary on weight loss; but better than that, she also won $50,000 and a 1998 Corvette.

Wrap-Up: Quite a few readers have inquired about Martha Perez. She’s the Costa Mesa teenager, written about here almost a year ago, who will receive facial reconstruction surgery through Operation Smile.

It’s a nonprofit group based in Inglewood that helps the kind of people Michael Niccole is helping in other countries. Perez was born with severely underdeveloped jawbones, which prevented her from having teeth, or ever showing a smile.

The update is: Things are going well, but slowly. Operation Smile spokeswoman Holly Skala reports that a team of five doctors has been put together for the surgery--two surgeons, an aesthetic dentist, an orthodontist, and a team leader. It won’t take place for at least another six months, to give Perez’s bone structure time to stop growing. In the meantime, a mold has been created for new teeth and gums for her.

Said Skala: “The first time the doctors fit it into her mouth, she was afraid to look in the mirror. But she finally did, and she’s very, very pleased.”

Perez and Skala will appear together to talk about the surgery on April 18 before the California Federation of Women’s Clubs at the Doubletree Hotel in Orange. That group is helping to pay for the surgery, along with Elks Lodge 1959 in Huntington Beach.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by call-ing the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail [email protected]