1 Dept of Pediatric Surgery, The Children's Hospital and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO 80218
To the Editor.
Dr Asnes' Letter to the Editor (Pediatrics 1992;89:979) which recounts the painful story of a 17-year-old college applicant with pectus excavatum and his difficult passage through childhood and adolescence evokes sympathy and sadness. The patient's struggle with taunts, ridicule, and humiliation and his final accommodation to the physical and psychological impact of his deformity command our respect and admiration. The poignant lesson Dr Asnes draws is that the pediatrician not only has an obligation to attend the physical growth of his patient, but also to "observe, monitor, and nurture" emotional growth.