7 News Belize

Free Plastic Surgeries By US Army
posted (May 10, 2013)
The US Military's New Horizon Operation si providing specialized plastic surgeries to persons in southern Belize. One case is 4 year old Isai Carrillo, who underwent surgery last week Thursday to correct a condition known as syndactyly, or hand fusion, in his right hand. A US Army plastic surgeon explained.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Matthew Talarezyk, Plastic Surgeon
"Syndactyly is the most common congenital hand abnormality in the United States with an incidence of one in one hundred thousand, one in two hundred thousand children. It is more common in males; this child has what is called Apert Syndrome which is an extremely rare condition which is an incidence of one in two hundred thousand children but the syndactyly is very common in the Apert's child and so our goal today; he has syndactyly in both hands and we are going to release one hand Syndactyly"

After the surgery, his hand that was once fused has three fingers.

The plastic surgery readiness training exercise finishes tomorrow May 11. Up to early this week, 18 patients had been treated.

New Horizons began April 1 and is scheduled to run until June 30.


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