Healthy Living: Birth defects
Professional medical care in the United States is vast but that is not the case in other countries. In the Health Report, the story of a young Iranian boy who's life was changed right here in the U.S.
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Each day many children are born with birth defects, some severe some mild severe. Children born in the US have a chance while in other countries, they are not so fortunate.
"He's going to die because he couldn't breathe," said one woman.
The day her son was born, he nearly died. He was born with severe facial deformities. He had only one eye, no nose or nasal passages, he couldn't breathe. Living in Iran, there was no hope. That was until a team of U.S. doctors stepped in. His healing journey began when Mo was just three, made financially possible through a program called the Gift of Life, as well donations from Ellis Hospital, Schenectady Anesthesiology and Dr. Mohammed Rad. His first and most difficult surgery was creating an eye socket for a prosthetic eye.
"He had craniotomy we take the skull cap and take it out. By doing the craniotomy, by dividing the rudimentary bones on the right face through a process called oseo-distraction we could create an eye socket for him," said Rad.
Plastic Surgeon Dr. Lucie Capek has also donated her time and has been working on his nose and nasal passages.
"He basically didn't have a nostril, so I took tissue from his ear lobe and where there is cartilage and skin and I transferred it to the nose and created the left side of the nose, built up the tip and created a nostril because he really had just a pin hole on the left side," Capek said.
This is his 19th surgery. Dr. Capek is harvesting part of his right ear to build up the other side of his nose.
Little Mo's journey is far from over. His surgeries are unpredictable and that's because he's young and his bones, especially his jawbones, will be growing, until he's almost 20.
They are back and forth on a Visa from Iran, he is here for a few more months. They are thankful for the help, without it, Mo's medical bills would have added up to nearly $500,000.