Doctors repair face of girl who looked like alien
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Shanghai Daily, August 4, 2011
A five-year-old girl with an ET-like face including protruding eyes and a beak-like nose due to a genetic disorder was discharged from a local hospital yesterday with a "normal" face.
Plastic surgery jointly performed by the Shanghai Children's Medical Center and the Shanghai No.9 People's Hospital successfully renovated her skull and facial bones to fix the deficiency.
The girl identified as Yuan Yuan from neighboring Zhejiang Province suffered Crouzon syndrome, which makes an infant's skull and facial bones fuse early or fail to expand.
Surgery can prevent the skull from closing too early and preventing the brain's development.
"If not undergoing the surgery, the girl can have her brain development impacted and the facial deficiency could also influence her respiration, as the flat nose had made her sleep with an open mouth before the surgery," said Xia Lin, an official from the Shanghai Children's Medical Center.
She said Yuan Yuan was hospitalized at the children's medical center in June, when her parents finally decided in favor of the risky surgery.
