Badly Burned Girl Has Face Restored

June 23, 2003 -- At just 9 years old, Zubaida Hasan was severely burned. While lighting the family's kerosene cooking stove in August 2001, it burst into flames and set her on fire.

Without expert medical care — doctors are scarce in her remote region of Afghanistan — scar tissue fused Zubaida's face and one arm to her chest, leaving her horribly disfigured.

Smiling became impossible; the young girl could not even close her eyes. Her father brought her to a hospital in Iran, but after a 20-day stay, doctors told him there was little that they could do, and the only option was to let the girl die.

Instead, Zubaida's father brought her to a U.S. military base in Kabul for help. Overcoming numerous obstacles and with the help of Army doctors, the State Department, the Red Cross and the Children's Burn Foundation, she was ultimately brought to the United States.

Once in the States, Zubaida was treated beginning last June at the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital in Sherman Oaks, Calif., where Dr. Peter Grossman and his medical team performed the first of a dozen complex surgeries.

A Horrific Disfigurement

"It was certainly one of the most horrific cases that we've seen, and very disturbing — that pulls on your heart strings," Grossman told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America.

In the absence of any adequate treatment, the body tried to heal itself by growing scar tissue, he said. The scar tissue on Zubaida's face was pulling down to the scar tissue on her chest. And because the scar tissue does not have the elasticity of skin does, it was pulling on her mouth and eyelids. It took about six months for the full disfigurement to set in.

Yet there was still healthy tissue to work with, Grossman said. For the first surgery, doctors had to cut through deep layers of scar tissue to detach Zubaida's face from her chest. For the first time in more than a year, her face emerged.

"We squeezed about three years of surgery into one, because we had a goal of getting her back home within a year so she wouldn't be separated from her family," Grossman said.

Seeing Her Face Again

Zubaida's father speaks no English, but his delighted smile managed to communicate his feelings when he saw his daughter smile again after the first surgery. After that initial surgery, her father returned to Afghanistan.

In subsequent surgeries, 12 in one year, doctors removed skin grafts from Zubaida's back and placed them over the open wounds that are on her face, neck, chest and arms.

"She's well enough that she can function and walk around with a much better sense of self-esteem than she had," Grossman said.

Zubaida lived with the Grossman family while she was treated. Her face is still scarred, but the improvement is incredible.

Dr. Grossman's wife, Rebecca, said Zubaida couldn't stop dancing when she realized her body could perform such movements once again.

"The bandages had to be wrapped loosely because she would dance everywhere," she said.

The family sent Zubaida to Round Meadow Elementary School in Clabasas, where she learned English in about 12 weeks.

"She is brilliant," Rebecca Grossman said. "Her mental, emotional, psychological well being is just as dramatic in transformation as her physical appearance."

The Grossmans live in a gated ranch community, and while there, Zubaida has made friends and enjoyed having her own room, a pony to ride and the chance to play at the beach.

But her American family worries Zubaida won't have the opportunity to reach her full potential when she returns home to Afghanistan. So the family has started a foundation to help provide for a home for Zubaida, her parents and her eight brothers and sisters. They also hope to start a schoolhouse for her community.