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TAIPEI: Wang Cheng is looking forward to running and wearing
trousers for the first time in more than a decade after
life-changing surgery in Taiwan to correct a rare and painful
condition which caused her legs to treble in size.
An elated Wang, 24, said she couldn’t wait to
live a regular life, including wearing normal clothes and eventually
attending college back home in China, things that most people take
for granted.
“I feel so light,” the young woman said,
lifting her legs without any difficulty from her hospital bed in
Taipei.
“If it were not for these things, I would like
to run and jump now,” she said with a grin, pointing to the
bandages on her legs.
“I cannot wait to wear trousers and skirts.”
Wang has been unable to work nor wear regular
clothes because of the grotesque and painful elephantiasis, which
has dogged her since the age of six and left her with legs weighing
50 kilograms.
Wang’s condition had forced her to stay at
home with her father, paralyzed from a stroke, and unemployed mother
since graduating from high school in the eastern Chinese province of
Jiangsu.
Wang traveled to Taiwan for the 10-hour
operation thanks to Taiwanese Buddhist group Fo Kuang Shan, which
learned of her plight through an Agence France-Presse photo report
last year.
A team of doctors, led by Hsu Wen-hsien, an
expert in oncology and peripheral vascular surgery, performed the
surgery at the Wanfang Hospital free of charge last month.
In an interview with Agence France-Presse before
the operation, Hsu said he had never seen such an extreme case of
the condition in more than 30 years of medicine.
But the specialist was confident of success, and
planned to alleviate the swelling in her legs through surgery.
“It’s very likely the disease started when
her veins were obstructed, and blood flowed to the lymphatic
vessels, thus leading to swelling in the legs,” he said.
The operation has meant Wang’s thighs have
reduced to 51 centimeters across, from 66 centimeters, while her
calves are 34 centimeters, down from 69 centimeters, according to
hospital data.
Wang’s overall weight has also fallen from 82
kilograms to 62 kilograms.
“I felt at ease when the doctors announced
they had completed the operation. I knew they could do it,” said
Wang’s mother, Cheng Yuxia who traveled with her daughter to
Taiwan.
“The surgery has proved to be a great
success.”
Wang’s mother said over the years she had
taken her daughter to doctors in the Chinese cities of Shanghai,
Beijing, Nanjing and Zhengzhou, all of whom were baffled by her
condition and unable to help.
The exact cause of the deformity is still
unknown. Elephantiasis, or lymphatic filariasis, is often
transmitted by mosquitoes, but doctors have ruled this out in
Wang’s case.
If post-surgery rehabilitation on her legs goes
well, Wang is expected to fly home in early September when “a
group of my high-school classmates will hold a big party for me,”
she said.
Wang said she was looking forward to getting on
with the rest of her life.
“I hope I can go to college because I believe
only knowledge can help me find a decent job,” she said.
Wang’s high-profile surgery has encouraged
dozens of elephantiasis patients to seek help from the hospital.
“That’s something unexpected,” Hsu said.
Before leaving for the mainland, Wang, who
became a Buddhist two years ago, said she wanted to visit Fo Kuang
Shan in southern Taiwan to thank them for their generosity.
The group is paying for all travel and
non-medical expenses while the hospital is providing the operation
and related care, estimated at $16,500, free of charge.
-- AFP
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