Dr. Dr. Claudia Malic (centre) (credit: Andre Coutu)
Meet Dr. Claudia Malic, Pediatric Surgeon.
Dr. Malic knew from a young age that she wanted to help people. At 10 years old, she dreamed of being a doctor, and by 18, she was entering the Faculty of Medicine in Romania before later completing her plastic surgery training in the UK.
“I’ve always been a creative person. As a child, I loved playing piano and being in nature,” says Dr. Malic, “Plastic surgery offers a similar creativity. You’re equipped with a toolbox and can work in any part of the body. You can be innovative in your approach. And better yet, with plastic surgery, I can see the results of my work rather quickly.”
Today, Dr. Malic works as a pediatric plastic surgeon at CHEO – providing care for cleft lip and palate (with ENT and Oral Surgery), Cranio-facial deformities (with Neurosurgery) and congenital hand deformities, and brachial plexus injuries (with Orthopaedics). She started working in Canada in 2014 when she was six months pregnant with her daughter and just beginning her journey as a surgeon. “Since becoming a mother, I have a deeper understanding of what parents are going through when they bring in their children,” says Dr. Malic, “It’s made me softer, more considerate, and a better physician overall.”
When asked why she chose pediatrics, Dr. Malic shares, “I remember the way the children smiled during my training. They brightened my day.” To this day, she still receives tokens of appreciation from the children she cares for – drawings, bracelets, paintings – and she treasures them.
Dr. Malic, like her peers, has a fondness and appreciation for the children coming through the doors of CHEO. To her, CHEO is unique because of its people and their dedication to helping children and youth live their best lives.
Last fall, Dr. Malic led a plastic surgery camp in India that helped treat people who couldn't access life-changing care, an initiative she has participated in for several years. She travelled almost 12,000 kilometres in November 2023 to lead a one-week plastic surgery camp in Chitrakoot, a remote area in northern India. She was left in awe by the stories of families who trekked a few hundred kilometres to access surgeries, meals and accommodation they otherwise couldn’t afford.
Dr. Malic led a team supported by U.K.-based charity Sewa UK to perform 25 surgical procedures, including cleft palates and burn contractures, in fewer than four days.
Outside of one anesthetist and an anesthesia assistant, the volunteer medical team consisted entirely of current and former CHEO staff: anesthetist Dr. Gillian Ramsey; retired nurse co-ordinator Sue Hunt; recovery nurse, RN Terry Pridham; and RNs Chester Gonzales and Jessica McAdam, who worked as scrub nurses on the team.
The camp team heard some difficult stories and treated patients who didn’t have the means to access the necessary medical care, said Dr. Malic.
She recalled treating a three-year old girl who couldn’t use her left hand because it was attached to her chest — an injury caused by severe burns when the girl fell into a pot of boiling milk when she was one year old. Dr. Malic also met a four-year-old boy who tried his first ever banana after a procedure.
As seen in a video posted online by Sewa UK, patients expressed gratitude for the quality of the care, the setting and the result of each procedure.
The team felt rewarded by the experience, especially during their busiest day when they saw 140 patients. Dr. Malic says she typically sees about 37 patients per day at CHEO.
She hopes to lead more camps in future years while trying to expand the team to include a urologist and another plastic surgeon.