Medical Fund for Needy Chinese Children

Dear Donors,

A Life A Time Foundation doesn’t use the GlobalGiving platform only to raise funds to support our mission.  We also share some of our particular cases with our donors to get a sense of some of the particular cases we have encountered and to better understand the lives of the children we are able to help.

Today, we would like to introduce you to a very special girl, Jiang-Li, who we have followed closely since 2012. Jiang-Li, of Miao ethnicity, was born in December 2006 in Guizhou province. She was born with large moles that covered most of her body. When she was two years old, her mother left home and never returned. After that, her father sent her to a daycare in Guiyang City and also disappeared. Fortunately, Jiang-Li’s great uncle took the girl into his home. Because of her appearance, Jiang-Li could not go to school because she was bullied by other children and was called hurtful names.

Jiang-Li was exposed to public attention when a photo of her was taken by a local volunteer and posted to the internet. After that, volunteers and nonprofit organizations in China contacted an orthopedic specialist in Shanghai, who recommended skin grafts involving six to seven surgeries in a two-to-three year time span in order to minimize her mole coverage and to improve her appearance. 

In July 2012, with the help from the hospital, donors and nonprofit organizations, Jiang-Li underwent her first surgery in Shanghai. The originally planned seven-hour surgery lasted 11 hours. During the surgery, three balloon dilator devices were implanted in the right side of her face, chest and stomach to expand her skin in order for the doctor to harvest grafts from those areas later on (after 3 to 5 months) to be used to replace the mole-covered areas over her body.

In January 2014, Jiang-Li returned to Shanghai with her father for her second surgery. In 2013, with volunteers and media continuing to report about Jiang-Li, her father finally returned home. Unfortunately, because not enough skin had grown since the first surgery, the doctor was only able to perform a skin graft on her left side of face while the initial plan was to operate on both her face and neck.

After the surgery, Jiang-Li was taken by her father to live at her grandmother’s home in Jiangsu province. A few months later, her father disappeared again and since then the family has never heard from him. In the summer of 2014, Jiang-Li left her grandmother’s home because of some disagreements and was found by strangers and sent to a special needs boarding school. The treatment was interrupted because Jiang-Li was not able to go to the local hospital on a regular basis to inject water in her dilator devices to grow new skin.

In October 2015, volunteers visited Jiang-Li at her school and shared her recent photos with her doctor in Shanghai. It was determined that enough new skin had grown for a third surgery. After almost two years, in December 2015, Jiang-Li underwent her second skin graft operation using skin from her chest to implant on her neck and also the old balloon dilators were taken out. Because of the pain Jiang-Li had gone through, new dilators were not placed this time and it was decided to put the long-term treatment plans on hold until Jiang-Li was ready again.

During 2016, Jiang-Li’s scheduled May surgery to repair some of her scars had to be postponed.  Unfortunately, she had not received enough donations, and also her grandmother was reluctant due to their financial situation.

In February 2017, Jiang-Li underwent the postponed scar repair surgery. The doctor also planned to implant few new balloon dilators so that new skin can be used for another skin graft operation on the still obvious areas on her face and neck. However, due to concerns from Jiang-Li’s grandmother about ongoing financial difficulties, the plan was cancelled.

After the surgery, Jiang-Li returned to her special needs school. Her grandmother reported that the absence of her father had impacted Jiang-Li greatly and as she grew, she started to feel more pain especially when she saw other children who lived with their parents. Nevertheless, Jiang-Li is a good student and has performed well at her school.

In February 2018, Jiang-Li had another scar repair surgery. Thanks to the hospital in Shanghai, many donors and nonprofit organizations have helped Jiang-Li over the past six years, and now Jiang-Li’s appearance has improved significantly. The next treatment has not been planned, but A Life A Time Foundation will continue to support her and report her progress.