Teamwork helps Cambodian girl walk

Makara Tuan, 14, of Cambodia, does rehab work Tuesday in the Williamsville Diagnostic Center under the guidance of Mike Bauer. At left is Deborah Franco, who led the effort to help Makara.
Sharon Cantilon/Buffalo News

Buffalo News

04/01/09
By Jay Tokasz
NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Less than a month ago, Makara Tuan used crutches to navigate her Cambodian village and risked losing her right leg to a rare bone disease.

But on Tuesday, thanks to a remarkable set of circumstances that brought the beaming 14-year-old girl to Western New York, Makara walked into an Amherst physical therapy office, without crutches, and performed a series of exercises with an easy smile.

“It is a miracle, the whole thing, from start to end,” said Deborah Franco, a Lockport resident who helped lead the effort to get Makara’s ailing leg healed.

The start was more than a year ago, nearly 12,000 miles away in a small village in Svay Rolom, where Makara limped into a medical mission run by Operation Renewed Hope, a Christian humanitarian group based in Fayetteville, N. C.

Makara complained of a broken leg, and when doctors asked her how she broke it, she simply replied, “I got out of bed.”

X-rays from a hospital two hours away in Phnom Penh ultimately confirmed that Makara had an aneurysmal bone cyst, a disorder that ravaged her femur to the point that merely walking would cause it to snap.

Unless she had complicated surgery by a skilled orthopedist, the leg probably would have to be amputated.

Franco entered the story about a year ago, when she met a doctor affiliated with Operation Renewed Hope at a convention in Louisville, Ky. The doctor later e-mailed Franco regarding Makara’s case and the organization’s efforts to find a U. S. hospital and surgeon.

Franco, in turn, contacted her close friend Dr. Helen Cappuccino, a general surgeon who is married to an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Andrew Cappuccino, the man credited with helping save the life of former Buffalo Bills tight end Kevin Everett.

Andrew Cappuccino agreed to do the surgery and volunteered to fly to Cambodia.

But hospitals there don’t have the equipment necessary for the kind of delicate surgery necessary in Makara’s case.

When approached by Operation Renewed Hope, a few American hospitals declined to host Makara. So Kenmore Mercy, where the Cappuccinos practice, signed on.

Franco’s employer, Raptim International Travel in Lewiston, which specializes in travel arrangements for humanitarian efforts, paid for the airfare. An immigration attorney provided pro bono legal work for Makara’s visa. And Cappuccino and Kenmore Mercy provided their services free of charge.

In all, the gratis services probably totaled more than $50,000, said Jan Milton, founder of Operation Renewed Hope.

On March 14, Makara flew into Chicago, where Franco met her for a flight into Buffalo. On March 19 Cappuccino placed rods in Makara’s leg to allow the bone to heal.

Makara has been living with Franco, who has temporary legal guardianship while the girl is in the United States. She’s also spent time with the Cappuccinos, who have a daughter around the same age as Makara.

Milton credited Franco with making Makara’s unlikely journey and recovery a reality.

Franco, though, ascribed everything coming together as the work of God.

“There’s absolutely no man who could have done all that,” she said.