PALESTINE CHILDREN'S RELIEF FUND

Lama Waarieh

Young Burn Victim ready to go Home

by Gabriela Tayem
ALUFUQ arabi, Thursday, August 7, 1997

"I will toss all my caps and hats out of the window now". Those are the words of 6-year-old Lama Waarieh after her surgery at Mercy Hospital on Wednesday. During the two hour procedure Dr. Michael Peters gave Lama a new hairline which he reconstructed from her existing scalp tissue. Lama had been burned in an accident over 2/3 of her head when she was a baby, leaving her partially

bold. No plastic surgery was available to her in the refugee camps in Lebanon. She was bought to the U.S. by the PCRF (Palestine Children's Relief Fund) at the beginning of the year. Preceding the surgery were the implants of tissue expanders into the area of Lama's head where she does have hair. Weekly injections with a saline solution eventually expanded the area sufficiently to gain enough skin to be attached to her upper head, thereby moving her hairline closer to her forehead. Dr. Michael Peters and Mercy Hospital provided their services free of charge.
Lama is being hosted by Najah and Mahmoud Mostafa and other families in San Diego.