The doctor told Kevin’s parents that the chance of him surviving was slim.īut survive he did. His mother didn’t see him again until he was eight days old. Immediately after his birth, doctors whisked him away to another hospital in another state – the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Kevin was born in New Jersey with a rare malignant vascular tumour, a kaposiform haemangioendothelioma, covering the left side of his face, squeezing shut his left eye and pushing his nose to the right. I have to do it every single day.” He exercises so much that his jaw sometimes hurts. Our facial expressions don’t reflect our feelings.The smiles that are anything but welcoming.Being 13, he sometimes forgets, though he understands their importance. He practises both the Mona Lisa – slight, closed-lip – and a wide, toothy smile.Īt least, he’s supposed to do his exercises every day. He puckers his face into a kiss, then opens wide into an O, trying to limber up his facial muscles. He hooks an index finger into each side of his mouth and pulls gently upward. Or when stopping by the bathroom, or anywhere with a mirror. Kevin Portillo practises smiling every day at home.
