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Woman, 20, whose face was severely burnt in an accident when she was a baby set to receive a face transplant in Turkey

Turkish health minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca has tweeted his support for Leyla Demirci, saying all the support will be provided by his ministry
UPDATED APR 8, 2020
(Source : Getty Images)
(Source : Getty Images)

A 20-year-old woman, whose face was badly burnt when she was an infant, is now looking to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to sponsor her face transplant.

Leyla Demirci, who lives in the Kahramanmaras province, in the Mediterranean region, experienced the terrible ordeal when she was just one-and-a-half months old. Her mother had taken her from the bath, covered her face with a scarf and put her inside a cot. Her mother had not noticed that Demirci's cousins were playing with fire inside the same room. Although details of the incident were not clear, the cousins somehow managed to set the scarf around her face on fire.

"When I was one-and-a-half months old, my mother bathed me and put me in a cradle and covered my face with a scarf," Demirci told local news outlet Haber Turk. "At that time, my uncle's children burned the scarf while playing with fire. After that, my face was like this." 

Since her peers were scared to look at her face, Demirci's parents were forced to homeschool her for most of her childhood. The 20-year-old said that she was fortunate enough to find a teacher who would teach her at home. 

"They didn't take me to school," Demirci said. "They were afraid of me."

However, now that she is grown up, she wants to to be accepted by society. In order to do that, Demirci has been attending specialist appointments bi-annually at a hospital in Antalya, hundreds of miles from her home, Daily Mail reported. 

However, such procedures are expensive and since her father was unemployed, he could not afford the plastic surgery required for his daughter to lead a normal life.

"I am waiting for help from our President. I go to our tests and I'm treated," Demirci said.

According to reports, she is being treated by Prof. Dr. Ömer Özkan, who has completed five of the seven face transplants carried out in Turkey.

On Tuesday, Turkish health minister Dr. Fahrettin Koca tweeted his support for Demirci. "Leyla, the girl waiting for a face transplant, is being treated by Prof. Dr. Ömer Özkan, and a donor is being sought. The support it needs in this process will be provided by our Ministry. I closely monitor our daughter's condition and wish her well-being and healing," he said. 

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