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Disabled South Sudanese boy treated in Korea
An 11-year-old South Sudanese boy, Reng Garang Reng, receives treatment for his bowed legs at the Gangnam Severance Hospital in Seoul, Wednesday, while his cousin Ayuen Deng Reng looks on. / Courtesy of Joint Chiefs of Staff
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye
An 11-year-old South Sudanese boy suffering from being bow-legged is receiving surgery and treatment at Gangnam Severance Hospital in Seoul, thanks to financial support from the hospital and Chunil Automobile, an import car dealer in Korea.
Reng Garang Reng, who has had difficulty walking due to being bowlegged, arrived in Korea Tuesday, and will undergo surgery Thursday.
The support from the hospital came at the suggestion of Korea’s Hanbit Unit made up of 280 Koreans, mostly engineers and medical specialists, stationed in South Sudan as part of the U.N. peacekeeping forces there.
The hospital vowed to pay 40 million won ($34,000) and the company 20 million won to pay for all the expenses for the surgery, treatment and accommodation here, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The company previously signed a memorandum of understanding with the hospital to help patients suffering from bad conditions.
The unit supported expenses for flights, food and clothing.
The JCS said that South Sudan’s Jonglei State asked Hanbit Unit on Oct. 12 to treat the child. The unit brought Reng to its base and conducted an X-ray examination of his legs, confirming that he could not be treated with the present level of medical technology in South Sudan.
Then, the unit sent e-mails to three large hospitals in Korea asking for support. Gangnam Severance Hospital volunteered after examining the patient’s condition.
Orthopedic surgeon Park Hoon of the hospital said that in two or three years, Reng would not be able to walk unless he receives the proper surgery and treatment.
“We will do the best we can to cure him,” the doctor said, noting that the boy’s rehabilitation in Korea will continue until January.
Reng’s cousin, Ayuen Deng Reng, 20, who accompanied him as a guardian, expressed gratitude for Korea and Hanbit Unit, saying “A miracle presented itself.”
“It is a dream come true that my young cousin will be able to walk well,” he said. “I am excited to think that he and his mother will be delighted by his cure.”
The 11-year-old’s father died during the civil war in Sudan in 2009. His mother, 31, could not come with the boy as she needs to look after his two younger brothers aged eight and six.
Reng is planning to return to South Sudan in February and will receive sustained rehabilitation treatment at a local hospital there and from Hanbit Unit.
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