A young teenage girl from China underwent plastic surgery to get a fresh new face after suffering from a rare ailment which made her look decades older.
The 15-year-old known as Xiao Feng, faced bullying at school due to her medical condition, known as Progeria, which was the reason behind her wrinkles and sagging skin, but the only way out for her was plastic surgery costing £56,000.
But thanks to some Good Samaritans who picked up the bill, Feng has got a new lease of life after undergoing the surgery last month which took seven hours and was performed by ten surgeons at Shenyang Sunline Plastic Surgery Hospital.
The medical team said Progeria occurs in one in every eight million live births, and causes people to age prematurely affecting the skin and internal organs, but in Feng’s case, her organs were not affected. Her mother too suffered from the same genetic condition.
Head of the hospital, Dr Shi Lingzhi spoke about how the surgeons had to first remove the extra skin, which was 7 cm thick. Then they reshaped her nose, eyebrows and mouth. He also said that the hospital cancelled all of the outstanding medical bills for Xiao Feng and appealed for the funds raised by the public to be used for her recovery and future studies.
She was presented to the public at a press conference in Shenyang which marked the first time she would see her new face which was a highly emotional time for Feng and her family who were in tears. “Today is the happiest day for my daughter,” Xiao Feng’s father, Wang Hongde said.
Wang said, “The night after Xiao Feng’s surgery was the night when I slept the soundest because I believed that doctors could cure my daughter’s condition and help her live and study happily in the future.”
Feng said that before her surgery, nobody wanted to play with her and she did not have even one photo of herself. “Nobody wants to play with me, and only pigeons are willing to accompany me because they won’t dislike me or think I am ugly,” she shared.
Her father added, “When she was in her primary school, she was often mistaken for ‘the parents of pupils’; and whenever she went to the town with her mother, people would surround them, look at them and discuss about them,” her father said.
Feng is presently recovering from surgery at home with her family and will be celebrating the Lunar New Year together. Thanks to complete strangers and the medical staff at Shenyang Sunline Plastic Surgery Hospital, her life is never going to remain the same.