Dr Roberto DeCastro, the Italian surgeon who successfully performed a genital regeneration surgery on a Vietnamese boy who lost his penis and a leg in an attack by a wild animal in 2008, arrived in Hanoi yesterday to provide free examinations for 86 children with genital defects.
Dr Roberto DeCastro examines a child in Hanoi yesterday Photo: Lao Dong
His trip comes under the aegis of the “Regeneration of sex organs for Vietnamese children” program launched two months ago by the Asia Injury Prevention and Tran Mai Anh, the adoptive mother of Phung Thien Nhan, the boy whose penis was recreated.
The program’s objective is to treat children with congenital or accident-caused genital defects.
More than 80 applications for treatment were delivered to DeCastro for consideration before ne left for Vietnam.
Yesterday the doctor and his counterparts from the Hanoi Medicine University examined 18 patients for surgeries next November and April.
They will also screen children with genital defects to identify those who can be treated locally.
During his week-long trip, DeCastro will train the Vietnamese doctors in genital organ regeneration technology.
Phung Thien Nhan, 4, whose savaged penis was recreated by Italian surgeon Roberto DeCastro in 2008 (Photo: Nguoi Lao Dong)
In 2008 DeCastro had performed surgery on Nhan, recreating his penis using the boy’s own tissue at a hospital in the US.
The child was discovered in a jungle in the central Quang Nam Province in 2006 after being abandoned at birth by his mother. He had been mauled by a wild animal, thought to be a dog, which chewed off his leg and badly savaged his genitals.
He also had a prosthetic right leg fixed.
