By: Brittany Taylor/ N.W.A. Contributor
Parents of a 6-year-old are pleased with the decision they made for their son to receive cosmetic surgery after the child was bullied and harassed at school.
Gage Berger, from Utah, was born with bulging ears. He suffered from bullying and teasing by school classmates who called him “elf ears.”
“They say I look like an elf and that I have weird ears,” the boy said.
Gage’ father, Timothy Berger, 31, told ABC News that his “playful, outgoing” attitude changed over the past year and Gage told his dad that he “didn’t want to go to school.”
Timothy Berger said he would sometimes catch his son in the mirror trying to pull back his ears and “when he got nervous or upset or when he was in trouble, he’d physically grab his ears.”
The father said that his son thought it was his ears that were the problem when it came to disciplining him.
“It was subconscious. It was him thinking that his ears were the problem and that was why he must be in trouble,” the father said.
Timothy Berger and his wife, Kallie, researched about cosmetic ear pinning to help their son.
The Bergers found plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Mobley, who owns the Mobley Foundation for Charitable Surgery in Salt Lake City, Utah. The foundation helps families by providing free cosmetic surgeries for grade school children who are being bullied.
After Gage’s consultation, he was approved by Dr. Mobley to receive the two-hour procedure. When the procedure was over, Gage got his bandages removed from his new ears and “he grinned from ear to ear,” Mobley said.
But is this too much? Is it OK for children to get plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons?
There has been recent controversy surrounding children getting plastic surgery to stop bullying.
Mobley reassured this helps children from mental damage.
“They often get some not-so-nice names attached at a young age as they call them bat ears or elf ears and that name sort of sticks with them throughout later middle school, high school,” said Mobley.
Gage’s parents are pleased with the results and say their son is back to his old self again, and coming home from school with a much different day.
“When he comes from school, and I ask him how his day went, he isn’t telling me no one wants to play with him anymore. He’ll say things like, ‘Everything was good! We played outside, and I made like 10 new friends,” Timothy Berger said.
What do you think? Would you do this to see your child smile again?
