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Ambassador says that treatment will strengthen relations

The help a teenager from Burkina Faso received from Taiwanese doctors will strengthen relations between the two nations, Jacques Sawadogo, the ambassador of Burkina Faso in Taiwan, said yesterday.

Eighteen-year-old Vincent Kabore is to return home tomorrow after a undergoing facial-cranial surgery at Taipei's Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.

"It is a display of friendship," Sawadogo said. "The medical team and Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation have given Vincent wonderful care. He might not be here today if it were not for them."

The West African country of Burkina Faso has maintained diplomatic relations with Taiwan since 1994.

Kabore is a sufferer of neurofibromatosis, also known as Von Recklinghausen's disease. This genetic disorder caused the growth of enormous benign tumors on Kabore's face, resulting in severe disfigurement and posing a risk to his health.

"The tumor is fragile, with no elasticity. When it's damaged it bleeds profusely and keeps bleeding," said Chen Kuo-ting (陳國鼎), the director of craniofacial surgery at Chang Gung and a member of Kabore's medical team.

Kabore first came to Taiwan three years ago, when a member of Taiwan's medical team in Burkina Faso detailed his plight in an e-mail appeal to the nation's hospitals.

Kabore's previous surgery at Chang Gung removed much of the tumor that disfigured his face, but in the subsequent years tumorous tissue behind his right eye began to expand and his extensive skin grafts began to sag.

The new operation lasted nine hours and resulted in a three-week hospital stay for Kabore.

"It was a team effort," Chen said. "We had a team of four doctors working on him at once. The hardest part was protecting the brain while removing tumorous tissue from behind the eyes."

The hospital has worked on 30 to 40 Taiwanese patients with Von Recklinghausen's disease, Chen estimates.

"We learned something with every case. We've used the knowledge we've learned from Vincent on Taiwanese patients and vice versa," he said.

At yesterday's press conference prior to Kabore and his father's return to Burkina Faso the teenager looked pleased, but shy.

His father, Paul, spoke through translators on his behalf.

"I would like to thank the kind people of Taiwan," he said, "I pray that our two nations become even friendlier in the future."
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