Girl gets reconstructive surgery

In 2004, Ghana native Adwoa Frimpomaah was walking to get food for supper when she was hit by a car. The driver fled, leaving the now 17-year-old with facial disfigurements that were recently repaired at Schneider Children’s Hospital.
Five months after the accident, Jean and Vic Valente, members of the outreach organization Beyond Our Borders, were in Ghana and eventually were led to Frimpomaah. Jean said the girl was lying on the floor behind a curtain, her leg in a full cast with open sores and wearing bandages that hadn’t been changed since she left the hospital two weeks earlier.
“She was the saddest child I’ve seen in a long time,” Jean said.
The accident, which was never investigated, also left Frimpomaah’s face scarred. She was missing some of the scalp on the right side of her face and two-thirds of her ear.
The Valentes decided to sponsor Frimpomaah, whose parents both died before she even reached her teens, and bring her to the United States so that she could receive reconstructive surgery. She came in July of 2006, having surgeries in December of 2006 and this past May at Schneider Children’s Hospital.
The surgeries were performed by Dr. Andrew Jacono, the Section Head of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery for the Department of Otolaryngology at North Shore University Hospital, who waived his fees. During the surgeries, a new ear was constructed using parts of Frimpomaah’s floating rib and cartilage, along with flap reconstruction and a skin graft.
Jean Valente said that Frimpomaah has been doing very well since coming to the United States. She has been staying with the Valentes in their St. James home. She can now speak and understand English, enjoys singing and dancing, and watches American TV shows.
According to Valente, Frimpomaah, who will turn 18 in December, wants to stay in the United States and get an education.