Posted on 02/26/2002 8:50:43 PM PST by Asmodeus
27 February 2002
Mother makes £500,000 appeal to rebuild baby's face
A mother whose baby was born with half a face has appealed for help in raising £500,000 to rebuild her features.
Maria Rafi was born two months ago with a rare condition which left her without her right eye and ear, only half her nose and missing half her right jaw.
She was the only one of three triplets to survive the pregnancy and doctors only gave her a 50-50 chance of surviving, her mother says.
She was born in the Middle East with the condition Goldenhar Syndrome - a condition affecting one in 500,000 births.
Her mother Suzanne, of Heaton, Newcastle, said: "When I first saw her I didn't know what the future would hold. She is a gift from God and she has a purpose in life.
"We have to fight for her as parents and I wouldn't exchange her for 1,000 'normal' babies."
Mrs Rafi, 25, and husband Aziz, a 29-year-old who is studying for a masters degree in information technology at Sheffield's Hallam University, now want to raise £500,000 to pay for up to 20 operations to rebuild her face.
"Once the operations are done we hope the worst she will have is a glass eye," she said.
Surgeons could take a rib from the little girl and reform it into her jaw, her mother says.
An appeal fund has been set up by the family and people who would like to make a donation are asked to pay money into the Abbey National, account number X12690931ALR sort code 0900 00.
And a mild birth defect. My forehead is just a little bit pointy, because two pieces of my skull were fused together at birth (your skull isn't supposed to harden until later). What I said was just in good fun, I actually feel very sorry for the girl, I hope she has as normal a life as possible...
Count me in! When I'm not perusing FR I tend to head over to alt.tasteless where I laugh til the tears start flowing.
I'm so tired of America being generous and then being told how ungenerous we are.
That said, I hope they raise the money for the baby.
"Now that is a nice thought! I hope Santa leaves a nice big, cold reindeer turd in your stocking next Christmas. You have a cold heart. No kids, obviously. LVM"
LSHIACCOMN(Laughing so hard i am coughing coffee out my noise)
randystone
really a reindeer turd
randystone
Not exactly. (Hillary didn't cover it up that well.)
No, she's somebody else. I did joke about that once in the FR chat room with her...
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