In 2009, in a village in Hunan province, China, Yileon Xie gave birth to her first child — a boy named Hu Kang. Like any mother, she eagerly awaited the moment she would see her baby.
But what she saw a few hours after the delivery stayed etched in her memory forever.
When the nurses brought the baby, she froze in horror. Hu Kang suffered from a rare and severe condition: a bilateral transverse facial cleft.
The front part of his skull had not formed properly during pregnancy, which caused two deep fissures running from the corners of his mouth to his ears. His face looked terrifying, almost like a mask.
The family was desperate. The doctors said treatment was possible, but extremely expensive. In 2010, Yileon decided to ask for help.
She told her story to journalists, and the photos of little Hu Kang moved the whole country. People from all over China — and later from abroad — started making donations.
Thanks to those funds, Hu Kang was able to undergo two complex surgical operations.
Surgeons attempted to restore the symmetry of his face. Although the first results were far from perfect, the doctors assured that the real changes would be seen in ten years.
And they were not wrong.
In photos taken several years later, Hu Kang is a smiling schoolboy. The deep fissures have disappeared, leaving only faint, barely visible scars.
