In Need of a Helping Hand...

9-year-old Ahmed Hassan from the West Bank town of Qalqilya suffered third-degree burns on most of his lower torso in a home accident three years ago. He is in need of plastic and reconstructive surgery that is not available to him in his homeland, due to a lack of specialists. We have found part of the answer...

9-year-old Ahmed Hassan from the West Bank town of Qalqilya suffered third-degree burns on most of his lower torso in a home accident three years ago. He is in need of plastic and reconstructive surgery that is not available to him in his homeland, due to a lack of specialists.

An American nonprofit charity -- The Palestine Children's Relief Fund (www.pcrf.net) -- has received a positive response from Dr. Sam Speron of the Park Ridge Center for Plastic Surgery (http://www.prplastic.com ) to treat this boy as a charity case. The PCRF is excited to have someone as experienced and valuable as Dr Speron donate his valuable time to help Ahmed. The PCRF has also managed to find a host family to take care of Ahmed, and will make all of his travel arrangements to bring him for surgery. Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure a hospital to participate in his care on a humanitarian level. Given the complexity of this problem, we are urging a local hospital to help this boy get the care that he needs.    

The hardest part of this situation is convincing a local hospital to donate their services to someone in need," says Dr. Sam Speron, plastic surgery expert. I was touched when I first heard about Ahmeds story and have absolutely no problem helping him pro bono. I went into medicine to help people in the first place and I feel honored to be able to help this young boy reclaim his life. Regrettably, since most doctors and hospitals look only at the bottom line, it has been extremely difficult finding a hospital willing to help with Ahmeds case."

The PCRF is appealing to any local hospitals to permit Dr. Speron the opportunity to help this boy get the care that he needs. For more information about Ahmeds needs, please contact Steve Sosebee at: steve@pcrf.net

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