A Hong Kong woman who sustained a serious bullet wound to her lower jaw has undergone successful reconstructive surgery and is recovering in a hospital in Taiwan, doctors said on Friday.
Yik Siu Ling (易小玲), 37, was one of the tourists held hostage in Manila in August 2010 by Rolando del Rosario Mendoza, a dismissed Filipino police officer.
The standoff and subsequent shootout led to nine deaths, including Mendoza’s.
Nine other people, including Yik, were injured.
The bullet fractured Yik’s lower jawbone, dislocating the bone, and treatment over the past three years has left scars on her face and neck.
After weeks of preparation, a team of reconstructive and oral surgeons at Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in New Taipei City (新北市) operated on Yik on Wednesday, the hospital said.
After the 10-hour operation, Yik’s endotracheal tube was removed on Thursday and she was able to breathe normally, the hospital said in a press release.
The doctors removed Yik’s remaining scar contractures, relocated her lower jawbone and stabilized it with titanium plates.
Surgeons also used tissue taken from her fibula to repair her lower jaw by surgically joining blood vessels from the tissues.
The team of doctors was headed by Wei Fu-chuan (魏福全), a leading expert in reconstructive microsurgery.
The team has treated a record 3,000 patients with damaged extremities, repairing 1,835 fingers and toes of 1,600 patients.
Yik’s treatment is being documented by the Discovery Channel, which plans to air the program next year, the hospital said.
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