Craniofacial patient dreams of designing medical devices

By Maureen Gilmer, Riley Children’s Health senior writer, mgilmer1@iuhealth.org

When Margaret Prokopy was a kid, she loved stripes. She would often pair vertical stripes on pants with a horizontally striped shirt.

In high school, she went through a pink phase – wearing all pink outfits just because she loved the bright color.

She says she was a shy kid, an introvert, but she enjoyed expressing herself through fashion.

Prokopy, who graduated from Purdue University in May with a degree in biomedical engineering, was accustomed to people looking at her differently. Born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, she was adopted at 18 months, undergoing multiple surgeries through her childhood.

“From a young age, I knew when I met new people, they always noticed scars on my face,” she said. “At a certain point, you realize it doesn’t really matter what people think about how you look, and I think that impacted my fashion choices. I always go with what I want to wear and how I want to present myself rather than what’s fashionable.”

A longtime patient in the Cleft & Craniofacial Anomalies Program at Riley Children’s Health, Prokopy had her last major surgery as a senior in high school.

The Cleft & Craniofacial Anomalies Program at Riley features the state’s largest cleft and craniofacial care team in Indiana. Established in 1933, the program was among the first of its kind in the U.S.

But it was outside the hospital where she experienced her greatest healing.

Prokopy participated for many years in Camp About Face, Riley’s annual summer camp at Bradford Woods for kids with cleft and craniofacial differences, eventually taking on a leadership role.

“I enjoyed it for all the regular camp activities, and it was nice to meet other kids with the same craniofacial conditions,” she said. “In that setting, you get to know people and ask about their experiences.”

At the end of her final year in the Camp About Face Leadership Academy in 2022, she received the Hugh C. Kirtland-Broad Ripple Sertoma Scholarship, providing a $1,000 annual scholarship during her college years, said Caitlin Church, Cleft & Craniofacial Program coordinator at Riley. Church has known Prokopy for 11 years.

“We don’t often get to hear from our older patients after they’ve completed their treatment, but I’ve had the unique opportunity to touch base with Margaret once a year for the past four years to facilitate her scholarship renewal,” Church said.

“It’s been a joy to get updates throughout her college years and hear about her life beyond treatment. She’s an amazing example to others in our facial difference community, showing what it means to embrace your differences as part of your journey and not set limits on your goals and achievements. I’m looking forward to seeing what she does next!”

Next up for Prokopy is a gap year, during which she plans to travel. Currently, she is in the United Kingdom, where she has family. She’ll also have more time for her interests, which include tennis, chess, drawing, volunteering and playing violin.

When the year is up, she has her sights set on graduate school. Eventually, she would like to work in a career that allows her to help people in a lasting way by designing medical devices that support better treatments and quality of life.