Posted by Buffalo Times on
Two young Nigerians with severe facial deformities arrived in Buffalo Thursday night for reconstructive surgery.
Two young Nigerians with severe facial deformities arrived in Buffalo Thursday night for reconstructive surgery.
Stanley Nwachuku, 25, and Ebele Ukanwa, who is in her early 20s, flew from Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Buffalo via JetBlue.
Through his nonprofit Hope for Tomorrow Foundation, Dr. Jeffrey Meilman, a plastic surgeon at Kenmore Mercy Hospital in the Town of Tonawanda, arranged for the two to come to Western New York for the donated procedures.
Meilman and a team of doctors worked in Nigeria last summer. There, Meilman met Ukanwa, who was born with a severe cleft palate and lip that needed more extensive medical care than he could provide in Nigeria.
As he arranged to bring Ukanwa to the U.S., he learned about Nwachuku, who had survived a sulfuric acid attack.