Born with a lymphatic malformation, Dr. Kevin Huoh brings uncommon insight into the care he provides for patients with head and neck disorders. Dr. Huoh is helping CHOC expand the Hemangioma Clinic to become the Hemangioma and Vascular Anomalies Program, which will treat hemangiomas, venous and lymphatic malformations, as well as all vascular anomalies.
“If I can help one child the way doctors have helped me, their work will not have been in vain.”
Those words were spoken in 2003 by class valedictorian Kevin Huoh, as he prepared to graduate summa cum laude from the University of Southern California. He was headed toward a career in medicine and already knew exactly what he wanted to do: pediatric otolaryngology.
Ten years later, after further distinguishing himself at the University of California, San Francisco, and at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford Hospitals and Clinic, Dr. Huoh returned to Southern California to open his practice.
“I was born to do this,” Dr. Huoh often says. And indeed he was.
Dr. Huoh spent the first six months of his life in a NICU. Born with a lymphatic malformation, he lived with a tracheostomy tube and endured more than 90 surgeries over the next eight years.
The physicians who treated him probably never dreamed their patient would grow up with such profound gratitude and desire to give back. But Dr. Huoh clearly meant what he said all those years ago.
His goal is to help expand CHOC into the premier center for pediatric otolaryngology in Southern California, in addition to providing comprehensive, multidisciplinary, evidenced-based care for children with vascular anomalies.
“I truly believe that all children with pediatric head and neck disorders should be evaluated at a tertiary children’s hospital like CHOC,” Dr. Huoh said. “My goal is to expand our service to reach more children throughout the region.”
Board-certified in pediatric otolaryngology, Dr. Huoh’s clinical interests include congenital and acquired head and neck tumors, vascular malformations, surgical therapy of sleep apnea, endoscopic airway management and otologic surgery.
During his fellowship at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Dr. Huoh received many awards and honors. However, the Seymour Cohen Prize from the American Broncho-Esophagological Association for his research into pediatric airway management. was a highlight of his early career. Dr. Cohen was Dr. Huoh’s own pediatric otolaryngologist at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles all those years ago.
Additionally, Dr. Huoh has coauthored articles that have appeared in several medical journals, including The Laryngoscope and Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery. He has contributed several medical textbook chapters, including “Infantile Hemangiomas of the Head and Neck,” for Pediatric Clinics of North America: Pediatric Otolaryngology. 2013.
From the IVs and repeated surgeries, to not being able to go swimming and having to face down school bullies — Dr. Huoh well remembers what it was like to grow up with a chronic medical condition. And when the occasion warrants, he will share his own personal story with patients and families.
In doing so, Dr. Huoh hopes to foster understanding and inspire hope. It’s yet another way of thanking the team of physicians who helped him so early in life.
Fluent in conversational Mandarin and Spanish, Dr. Huoh is in practice at CHOC Specialists in Orange. For more information or to arrange a referral, please call 714-633-4020.
