This is a case of Tessier clefting. It's not super common but not impossibly rare, either. Maybe that doctor never heard of it during their medical training?
Teacher here: full disclosure, member of the NEA. I am grateful for the union, mostly for contract dispute resolutions. I have worked with teachers who, while not criminal, are super lazy, have burned out years ago, don't help kids learn anything, and then when their 2nd graders end up in my 3rd grade, I'm suddenly responsible for closing the gap in their NCLB test scores. That's more common and more ambiguous than the criminal contingent; I think everyone's had the unfortunate experience of being taught by someone who clearly doesn't care any longer. I am currently licensed and want to get hired in my new state; due to budget cuts in every district I will not have a job come Sept. but lots of burnt out teachers will stay on. Pretty sad.
While this is an awesome project, I looked at her website and she charges $250-$350 to make a monster from a drawing. It doesn't say how much she sold them to the parents for, but hopefully on a sliding scale! I cannot imagine a classroom where all parents could even cough up $100. The planning and design aspects were great educational ideas; I would do this in my own classroom (but not hold anyone hostage for money, the kids can just have their animals.)
Hahaha... there are 3 roads, out, the last one is mostly flat... I took my husband there today to take the tram up to the hospital where he works. We specifically planned to avoid that hill!