Sandi undergoes operation

Sandi undergoes operation

PERTH, Australia (AFP): An Indonesian youth born with a face so deformed he had considered killing himself, has undergone the first of two operations to correct the problem, surgeons said Saturday.

The surgical team, led by Perth plastic surgeon Tim Cooper, carried out complex surgery on 17-year-old Sandi Gisisi, from a coconut farming family on the tiny island of Ternate in the Halmahera group, east of Sulawesi.

After the first operation which was carried out at the beginning of this month, the team is now preparing for a second operation Tuesday in Perth's Mount Hospital.

Cooper met Gisisi in Ambon last year when he spent two weeks there as a member of an Interplast Australia team which carried out surgery on more than 60 children who turned up for help.

"I realized then that I could not fix him up properly without bringing him back to Perth," Cooper said last month as Gisisi arrived in Australia for treatment.

Cooper said Saturday the initial surgery to correct a gaping hole in Sandi's upper jaw had been even more successful than he had expected.

He had thought it would be necessary to take a flap of skin from Sandi's forearm to reconstruct the area, but there was enough tissue inside the mouth for him to work with.

One of the nurses looking after Sandi, Marie Sheehan, said: "I think he's a bit overwhelmed by it all, but he's putting on a very brave face."