The first thing 7-year-old Abdul-Hakeem Khalaf wanted when he awoke from facial reconstructive surgery Tuesday was a mirror.
The Iraqi boy's mouth was too small, he announced immediately after a successful 4 1/2-hour surgery, the first of several planned to repair wounds he suffered April 9, 2004, when a bomb fell on his Fallujah home.
He also had to be reassured that doctors would remove the black stitches.
These were no small worries for a child who was teased relentlessly at school, said his father. Ismaeel Khalaf Hussein is happy with the progress of his son's reconstructive surgery.
The boy - whose full name is Abdul-Hakeem Ismaeel Khalaf Hussein - is the only student at his school disfigured by war injuries, his father said.
Initially, he wasn't expected to survive.
No More Victims, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, brought Abdul-Hakeem and his father to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh on Feb. 19.
Dr. Fred Deleyiannis, a plastic surgeon at Children's, and Dr. Tonya Stefko, an ophthalmologist at UPMC Eye & Ear Institute, volunteered their services. A Massachusetts philanthropist donated $50,000 toward hospital costs, and Children's is donating the rest.
Yesterday, Deleyiannis reconstructed the left corner of Abdul-Hakeem's mouth, which will need further surgery. Once he heals from surgery, he should be able to completely close his mouth, allowing him to eat and drink more naturally, the doctor said.
In six to eight weeks, Deleyiannis will place skin expanders in Abdul-Hakeem's cheek to begin repairing his scarred and disfigured face with a darker-toned skin graft. Stefko likely will give him his prosthetic eye at that time, Deleyiannis said.
Each week for six to 12 weeks, the balloons will be inflated to encourage Abdul-Hakeem's skin to grow, much like a pregnant woman's belly, the doctor said. The extra skin and other tissue will be used to repair Abdul-Hakeem's cheek.
Abdul-Hakeem misses his mother and has been praying to return home in a month, his father said.
Still sleepy from medication, he had little to say as he recovered in his room at the hospital in Oakland yesterday afternoon -- except that he still believed his mouth is too small.
That, Deleyiannis said, is only because he does not remember what looking normal is.
"As long as he is good and he's in good health, and he looks better, he's patient. It's all worth it, because he'll have an easier time in school," his father said.
