Doctors were set to begin the reconstruction on Thursday of the face of a four-year-old Kenyan boy who was mauled by dogs when he was an abandoned newborn.
Daniel Wachira, who lost much of the left half of his face in the attack, was expected to be in surgery for about 11 hours to reconstruct his jaw with one of his ribs.
”There is that underlying apprehension that goes with something like this. We want him to look normal and at the same time, we know that there will be lots and lots of difficult days ahead,” said Larry Jones, who with his wife, Frances, serve as Daniel’s legal guardians.
Plastic surgeon Dr Sean Boutros and other doctors at the Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital were donating their services, said Sherri Green, a hospital spokesperson. The surgery’s cost was estimated at $1-million.
Jones (65) and his wife first learned of Daniel’s plight through their Christian relief organisation Feed the Children, which they founded in 1979.
Daniel was brought to an orphanage run by the organisation in Nairobi, Kenya, when he was eight months old. He had been abandoned at birth and left on a trash heap in Nairobi, where dogs nearly mauled him to death.
The infant was rescued by a woman who was passing by and he was taken to a hospital in Nairobi.
”There has got to be something special about a child that was three minutes from death and a woman just happened along and heard him cry,” said Jones. ”Basically he should not be here.”
Jones described Daniel, who is fluent in English and Swahili, as very friendly and ”an extremely sharp kid”.
The Joneses took Daniel into their Oklahoma City home two months ago to begin his surgeries.
There is no jaw on the left side of his face, and his ”skin is just slick,” Jones said. His left eye and the left sides of his nose and mouth sag.
Daniel also has no left ear. Doctors hope to fashion a new ear out of another rib in about three years, Jones said.
Besides rebuilding his jaw with a rib, doctor’s on Thursday also planned on taking some muscle from Daniel’s shoulder to form a cheek.
Doctors have ”told him they are going to make his face look better but he really doesn’t understand what that means”, Jones said.
Thursday’s surgery was to be the first of four major procedures Daniel will need to have over the next 10 to 12 years to complete his facial reconstruction.
Daniel was expected to stay in the hospital for seven to 10 days and will live in Houston in June for follow up visits with doctors. – Sapa-AP