Quang Ngai, Vietnam—Michael Demian, Interplast associate director of foundation and corporate relations.
Thi, now 15, goes to school and helps her family with farming as much as she can. Her arm and neck movements are limited by the skin contractures on her neck and arm. Sometimes more painful than her limited movement is the teasing she receives from her classmates, who tell her that her stretched skin on her neck looks like the skin of a frog.
Thi's family simply does not have enough money to pay for surgery to release her contractures and give her back her mobility. Today, Interplast operated on a very nervous but happy Thi, releasing her neck contracture through a z-plasty surgical procedure, and provided her a skin graft on her left arm to allow her greater mobility. Although Thi's healing process still has a long way to go, she is now on her way to receiving the mobility that she was deprived of for so long, and so very much desires. The surgery lasted over an hour and a half and was successful. Her 16-year-old brother was by her side in the recovery room.
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