A six-year-old girl born without half her face can smile and laugh for the first time after pioneering surgery in London.
Darina Shpengler has returned happily to her native Russia to be reunited with her father after a mammoth 11-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Her three-month stint in Britain is the first in a series of operations to give the unique girl the complete face that she has never had.
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Darina Shpengler (pictured after surgery) has returned happily to her native Russia to be reunited with her father after the mammoth 11-hour operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital
‘You are so beautiful’, said her 49-year-old father Yury on video (pictured with his daughter after surgery) as he hugged the child for the first time since June
‘You see – she has learned to laugh,’ said her proud mother Elena, 47, weeping tears of happiness. Pictured: The family together before Darina had surgery
‘You see – she has learned to laugh,’ said her proud mother Elena, 47, weeping tears of happiness.
‘You are so beautiful’, said her 49-year-old father Yury on video as he hugged the child for the first time since June.
Darina has a rare and possibly unique condition that means she was born with no lips or chin, making other children ‘scared of her’.
Darina (pictured after surgery) has a rare and possibly unique condition that means she was born with no lips or chin, making other children ‘scared of her’
Her three-month stint in Britain is the first in a series of operations to give the unique girl (pictured after surgery) the complete face that she has never had
In her six years, she has suffered acute problems eating and cannot speak properly because of her condition which led some family members to disown her (pictured before surgery)
In her six years, she has suffered acute problems eating and cannot speak properly because of her condition which led some family members to disown her.
Her weight is similar to a one-year-old.
Russian doctors recommended that the only hospital in the world for Darina’s complex surgery was Great Ormond Street and the operation initially costing £67,400 was paid for by fund-raising in her homeland.
Darina (pictured after surgery) played in the London hospital after one of her surgeons checked up on her progress
In a video, surgeons Professor David Dunaway (left) and Dr Nadeem Saeed (right) checked up on the little girl
In a video, surgeons Professor David Dunaway and Dr Nadeem Saeed are seen moments after completing the marathon surgery.
‘We have just finished Darina’s operation,’ said Prof Dunaway of the hospital’s Craniofacial Unit.
‘It’s been a very long day, I think we have been operating for almost 11 hours…
‘I think we are very happy with the way things have gone.
Darina (pictured with her brother after surgery) is now back at her home in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region as fundraising starts for the next stage which will see the Great Ormond Street surgeons construct her upper jaw and lip
‘We made Darina a nice little jaw, it’s in a good position, and we introduced some more skin into her neck.’
Elena was full of praise for the support for her daughter at the hospital.
‘Darina spent three months with normal people,’ she said.
‘She has received an enormous amount of love from them, from all these people surrounded us these months and who took care of us.
‘They didn’t speak a word in Russian but came just to give a hug and their support.
Elena (pictured with her daughter before surgery) said: ‘I want people to stop pointing fingers at her so she doesn’t feel unhappy’
‘This had changed our daughter completely – and she learned to laugh.’
Darina is now back at her home in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region as fundraising starts for the next stage which will see the Great Ormond Street surgeons construct her upper jaw and lip.
Elena said: ‘I want people to stop pointing fingers at her so she doesn’t feel unhappy.’
Initially it was thought Darina suffered from debilitating Nager syndrome but her genetic tests show that her condition is unique and caused by ‘spontaneous mutations’, reported The Siberian Times.
A representative of Anglo-Medical UK, a medical concierge service who assisted Darina and her mother in London, said: ‘The doctors seem to agree that Darina might be the only girl in the world who has so many disabilities and preserved her intellect.’
Her mother explained the problems raising Darina and the struggles she has faced.
‘Her mouth is constantly open and all the time in blood,’ she said.
‘Only my sister supported me. All other relatives just stopped any communication with us. My brothers, their children, my husband’s mother – nobody wanted to accept Darina.’
Initially it was thought Darina suffered from debilitating Nager syndrome but her genetic tests show that her condition is unique and caused by ‘spontaneous mutations’, reported The Siberian Times. Pictured: The family back at home after surgery
But she said defiantly: ‘We do not hide Darina from people. We take her everywhere with us.
‘Can you imagine, we go into the shop, see our own relatives, and they immediately go out, asking their children not to look at us?’
Elena said when she gave birth the medical staff initially refused to show her the child.
‘I begged them to to show me my daughter,’ she recalled.
‘The nurse looked at me and asked – ‘Are you ready to see it? She is in an incubator. I went close and looked – and saw this wide open mouth.
Russian doctors recommended that the only hospital in the world for the complex surgery was Great Ormond Street and the operation initially costing £67,400 was paid for by fund-raising in her homeland. Pictured: Darina at the airport after surgery
‘I fell into darkness – and lost consciousness. I was taken to intensive care where the doctors suggested I leave the baby in the hospital.
‘But I strongly refused.’
At the time, Yury, her husband, was recovering from a car crash in another hospital.
‘His face did not change when he saw Darina,’ she said.
He told his wife: ‘She is ours, our girl. The truth is this trouble has only brought us together.’
‘It is so horrible when you see a crippled and crying baby and you are unable to help.
‘Darina was crying day and night, and I was crying too. I understood that she was in pain.’