I met Dr. McCarthy in the early 90s when I was trying to create a surgical charity called Operation Smile in New York City. Our mission was to help provide reconstructive plastic surgery for inner-city children who desperately needed it but couldn’t afford it.  

 When we started Operation Smile, two of my clients who were very successful cosmetic plastic surgeons working on Fifth Avenue generously agreed to provide surgery for all the children we found that needed it.   

But after a successful pilot program in 89 New York City public schools, we expanded the program to 500 schools and then eventually to all 1,200 New York City public schools.   As we expanded, the number of children who needed surgery increased exponentially and our two cosmetic surgeons couldn’t handle all the volume.  

So, I wrote to every chief of plastic surgery at every major hospital in New York city asking for their help with our program.  Dr. McCarthy generously agreed to meet with me and hear more about our program. So, I went to New York University Medical Center where Dr. McCarthy was Chief of Plastic Surgery and I was sitting in his office wearing a suit when he walked in wearing surgical scrubs which were covered in blood. He had just left the operating room.  

I was of course horrified but tried not to show it.   Little did I know that this surgeon in bloodied scrubs was one of the most renowned and respected plastic surgeons in the world. (Please see a brief summary of his incredible career and accomplishments below.)

I told Dr. McCarthy about our program and how we had found hundreds of children in inner-city schools that desperately needed reconstructive surgery but couldn’t afford it.  

Without hesitation he generously agreed to help us and to get support from his colleagues and hospital as well.  That first meeting launched a very productive and rewarding relationship that has lasted almost 30 years.

After working with Dr. McCarthy on our inner-city school program, he quickly became one of my favorite plastic surgeons.  Not only was he brilliant and very accomplished, he had a great sense of humor, a very generous heart and an easy-going nature about him.  

 A few years later when I co-founded Smile Train, I went to Dr. McCarthy and asked for his help again.  He explained to me how important it was that Smile Train had the medical advisory board.  I have never even considered this, but it turned out to be crucial to the success of Smile Train.

Dr. McCarthy agreed to lead this effort and he recruited many of the best in the world for our medical advisory board including Dr. Court Cutting who worked with Dr. McCarthy at NYU.  Dr. McCarthy served as Chairman of our ST Medical Advisory Board which established all of the standards, practices and protocols for all of smiled trains medical programs ensuring the highest commitment to safety and quality.

 Dr. McCarthy’s next great idea was that Smile Train develop virtual surgery software.  This was a brilliant, innovative way to provide invaluable training and education to cleft surgeons all around the world.  Dr. Cutting, who worked with Dr. McCarthy at NYU, led this project and it had a huge impact on the cleft community. With support from the Smile Train, more than 100,000 cleft surgeons used the technology and interactive training videos developed by Dr. Cutting and his team.

A decade after helping us create a medical advisory board for Smile Train, I asked Dr. McCarthy to do the same thing for our new surgical charity, Wonder Work. 

Once again, he said yes without any hesitation.   

Dr. McCarthy recruited some of the world’s best surgeons and medical professionals involved with burn surgery, clubfoot and blindness.  And he generously offered to chair this medical advisory board also.

Altogether, my work with Dr. McCarthy has helped provide life-changing surgeries for almost 2,000,000 children and adults.  I feel very lucky that I got to meet him during the beginning of my work with surgical charities and that he was so generous with his time and talent when we asked him for his help again and again and again.

 He’s not just a great surgeon, he’s a great human being.

Here’s a very brief summary of Dr. McCarthy’s long list of accomplishments. Dr. McCarthy, a native New Englander and Harvard graduate, earned his medical degree and completed his general surgery training at Columbia University. He was a founding member of the International and American Societies of Craniofacial Surgery and President of the Northeastern Society of Plastic Surgeons, the New York Regional Society of Plastic Surgeons, the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, and American Society of Craniofacial Surgery. Dr. McCarthy was instrumental in the development of modern craniofacial surgery through his tireless efforts and fundamental accomplishments in surgical innovation, education and research. He has trained 100+ plastic surgery residents and twenty-five craniofacial fellows.