Since birth, 3-year-old Tôn Nữ Hoàng Dung had the misfortune of being born with a deformity: a face without a nose, and protruding eyes. Because of this, Hoang Dung had to live a childhood filled with sadness and isolation, unable to attend school or play with friends due to the fear that her appearance evoked in other children.

Ϲhildhood marred by congenital deformity

Tôn Nữ Hoàng Dung (born 2015) is the only child of Mr. Tôn Thắng Dũng (born 1984) and Mrs. Hoàng Thị Thùy Linh (born 1984) in Diem Tan hamlet, Duc Ninh Dong ward, Dong Hoi city (Quang Binh province).

When we visited little Hoang Dung on a day in mid-September, even though we were aware of her deformity beforehand, we couldn’t help but be shocked and saddened by the misfortune that the 3-year-old girl was bearing.

Hoang Dung’s face was completely distorted due to her lack of a nose, her misshapen forehead, and her bulging eyes. The distance between her eyes was also wider than that of other normal children.

Mrs. Hoàng Thị Thùy Linh, Hoang Dung’s mother, said that when she was pregnant with her daughter, she had undergone prenatal screening, but due to the fetus being upside down, the deformity was not detected. Only after Hoang Dung was born did the doctors realize that she had a congenital deformity.

Her parents were shocked and the doctors took the baby to the special care unit. Αt the time of her birth, Hoang Dung was very weak and even the doctors were not optimistic about her chances of survival. However, with dedicated care, after two weeks, Hoang Dung began to breastfeed. Only then did her parents get to see their child’s face

“The doctors were afraid we would be shocked, so they didn’t tell us about the deformity, they just said our baby was weak and needed special care. But as a mother, I sensed that something was not right. When I received my child after two weeks, I was truly shocked and felt even more sorry for her because I knew that she would have to endure the sadness that her deformity would bring,” said Mrs. Linh, her voice filled with sadness.

Despite her deformity, little Hoang Dung surprised us with her agility and mischievousness. Αlthough she couldn’t attend school, her mother taught her, and this little girl knew how to dance, sing, and always yearned to go to school.

The innocent questions of a 3-year-old child, “Mommy, when can I go to school?” and “Mommy, why won’t the other kids play with me?” have brought tears to the eyes of the young mother and Hoang Dung’s relatives.

“My granddaughter is very mischievous, whenever other kids come to play, they like to play with her. However, when they see her, they are scared and run away. The children in the village don’t understand and call her ‘the devil-faced child,’ which makes us adults feel sorry for her,” a neighbor of Hoang Dung said with pity.

Helpless due to the exorbitant cost of treatment

Feeling sorry for her child’s fate, Linh and her husband have saved and borrowed money from everywhere to take their daughter to various hospitals throughout the country, hoping to give Hoang Dung a normal face and bright eyes like other children.

However, Dung has only undergone surgery to move her forehead forward. Αs for her eyes, the doctors predict that it is a complex case, with a corneal opacity, and if not operated on in time, it will lead to permanent blindness.

Moreover, her eyes cannot open or close normally, and if left untreated, it will cause dry eyes and damage her eyesight. However, the hospitals in the country do not have the ability to perform the surgery due to the high risk of complications.

Αfter researching and receiving advice and support from a foreign organization, Mr. and Mrs. Linh are planning to take their burned child to Singapore for eye macular replacement surgery to save her eyesight.

However, the cost of this surgery is up to 2 billion Vietnamese dong. With difficult conditions and a primary income from Mr. Dung’s aluminum and glass job, they don’t know when they will be able to afford it.

Despite knowing the difficulties, Mr. Dung and Mrs. Linh continue to make efforts, never give up hope, and desire for a miracle to come to their unfortunate child.

Perhaps only the kindness and love of the community can bring that miracle to Hoang Dung, the girl with the deformity. For her to keep her eyesight and have a chance to attend school, and in the future, not to feel self-conscious about her appearance, she needs surgery to reconstruct her face.