A team of surgeons from the US and Ukraine successfully operated on a girl with the rare Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome.
A 4.5-year-old girl from the Khmelnytskyi region traveled hundreds of kilometers to the ‘Okhmatdyt’ Children’s Medical Center to receive help. In Ukraine, there are less than ten such patients, and doctors couldn’t assist them. The girl had been waiting for a life-saving operation for all her 4.5 years.
Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome causes intense organ development, including tongue enlargement, hindering the child’s ability to eat and breathe. Statistics show that one such child is born for every 20,000 infants. The enlarged tongue must be corrected for the child’s normal development.
The RECONSTRUCTION MISSIONS assembled a team of surgeons who performed partial tongue resection using the Key hole technique. ‘Everything planned in the operating room was successful. After the surgery, the girl’s tongue is almost normal size’, the surgeons noted.
Now, the girl will be able to learn to drink, eat, and communicate like other children. Ahead are rehabilitation, and treatment with an orthodontist and speech therapist. ‘But the most important thing is that the first step is done’, the doctors emphasized.
This charitable mission was made possible by the Christian Medical Association of Ukraine in collaboration with LEAP Global Missions, Ed’s Friends, and Razom for Ukraine.