Al Ain : Her face is bandaged for the most part, while her left eye remains shut and a green tube sticks out of her left nostril. There's a raw cavity on her head as a vacuum wound drain sucks the extra blood out into a small pouch which she carries in her hand. Yet, there's a sparkle in her right eye, a rare spring to her step as she bounces around with a doll almost her size.
A bundle of energy, four-year-old Ayat Shaweesh, a Palestinian from Damascus, is getting her face reconstructed at Al Tawam Hospital in Al Ain after suffering third degree burns in a house accident.
Serious accident
Her mother Fairuz Shaeen said the accident occurred in 2008 when a pan of hot oil in which she was making French fries slipped, with the oil spilling over Ayat's face. Just two then, Ayat was treated for burns at a government hospital where grafting and lip adhesion to the nose was undertaken. Subsequently, she underwent five operations at a private hospital.
Progress over the long course of treatment was slow even as it financially drained the family, said Fairuz, whose husband Gassan is a painter. She said they had to sell their house and a pick-up truck to pay for the operations and fend for their seven children.
The non-profit Palestinian Children's Relief Fund (PCRF), which stepped in to help Ayat, brought the family to Al Tawam Hospital.
Dr Koos Scholtz, Chief of Plastic Surgery, who is treating Ayat, said she would have to undergo multiple procedures over two years to get her face reconstructed to an acceptable level. The procedures would help open her nostrils through splinting, bring down her hairline with a tissue expander — she had lost hair on half of her head — and restore the look and functions of her left eye, eyelids, nose and upper lip. Her left cheek, scarred due to grafting, would also have to be addressed, he added. "Ayat is a wonderful child," he said.
"She cries a lot after a procedure as she is in pain but otherwise she is very lively," said Ayat's mother Fairuz, adding that she is mostly on a liquid diet.
The PCRF, which is paying for the procedures — estimated to cost around Dh60,000 — is also putting up the family in a rented apartment in Al Ain.
"This is God's will. We pray that everything will be well again," said Fairuz.
