A success for Ngoc

Some weeks ago, I blogged about a boy named Ngoc from Hue, in central Vietnam. (See here and here for the last entries in which I wrote about Ngoc).

At age 13, Ngoc had never been taken to hospital to have his cleft lip healed. His family and community have considered him to be stupid, and he's never been to school simply because of the lip.

About a week ago, our social worker Hai took Ngoc to a hospital here in Hanoi to have the surgery done. We actually went around to a few hospitals, and selected the one that seemed most confident and knowledgeable. Cleft lip operations are pretty common and run-of-the-mill, but they're usually for kids aged 2 or 3, not 13...

Ngoc's surgery has been a HUGE success. We are all stunned at how well his lip has sealed up. From a few metres away, it's easy to miss seeing the tiny scar that gives away the fact that Ngoc has had cleft lip.

Here's Ngoc at his home in May 2007:

And here he is in my office today:

Ngoc's future suddenly looks a whole lot better.