Deformed youth gets 'new life'<\/p>\n
PERTH (Antara): An Indonesian boy born with a face so deformed
\nhe had considered killing himself is to be given the chance of a
\nnew life by Australian surgeons.<\/p>\n
Sandi Gisisi, 17, from a coconut farming family on the tiny
\nisland of Ternate in the Halmahera group north Maluku, is
\nscheduled to be operated on Monday in Perth's Mount Hospital.<\/p>\n
The operation will be supervised by Perth plastic surgeon Tim
\nCooper, who met Gisisi in Ambon last year when he spent two weeks
\nthere as a member of an Interplast Australia team which carried
\nout surgery on more than 60 children who turned up for help.<\/p>\n
\"I realized then that I could not fix him up properly without
\nbringing him back to Perth,\" Cooper said Friday.<\/p>\n
\"I had noticed him huddled in a corner of the hospital with
\nhis hand over his face.\"<\/p>\n
Gisisi traveled 24 hours by boat to be seen by the visiting
\ndoctors.<\/p>\n
Perth's Mill Point Rotary Club, a service body committed to
\nhelping the underprivileged, and Mount Hospital specialist staff
\ndonating their skills free of charge, made Gisisi's visit to the
\nWestern Australian capital possible.<\/p>\n
Cooper said the youth had an unusual cleft condition -- a hole
\nin his palate and upper jaw. He planned to take skin from his
\nforearm to reconstruct his badly malformed lip and cheek.<\/p>\n
Gisisi has been accompanied to Perth by a Franciscan nun,
\nSister Helena Nanayain, who works among lepers in Ambon.<\/p>\n
Sister Helena said Gisisi had told her he would commit suicide
\nif he did not have an operation to improve his appearance.<\/p>\n
\"He has spent a lifetime hiding what he regards as his 'awful
\nface',\" she said.<\/p>\n
He had few friends, had never been to school and could not
\nread or write, the nun said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/deformed-youth-gets-new-life-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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