Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Nearly done

Some good news about the young guy, Tung, who I wrote about here.

Blue Dragon supports Tung to go to school in the countryside, and a few months back we discovered that the injuries done to his body when he fell into a fire at age 2 could largely be corrected, or at least improved.

Tung has been in a hospital in Hanoi for just over 3 weeks now. His father has been by his side the entire time. At first Tung had surgery on just one finger of his left hand, and the doctors then operated on the thumb on his right hand. We were expecting them to carry on with four more fingers, but instead the doctors decided to operate on Tung's right foot, to correct the toes. For each of Tung's fingers and toes, the doctors have to remove old, then straighten them out (and pin them into place) before adding fresh skin.

So now, both of Tung's hands, and his right foot, are bandaged up and causing him plenty of pain... But he's still smiling!

The hospital has suggested that the little guy is in enough pain for now; any further surgery should be delayed for at least 6 months.

This Friday, Blue Dragon staff will drive Tung and his father home - they live about 40kms out of the city. What a dreadful summer holiday Tung has had; but there is great hope that this surgery will be worthwhile in the long run. I sure hope so.