Advice needed in order to help a young woman with TC
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Hi, my name is David Edell.
I live in Israel and have recently come across a lovely, sweet, helpful, and painfully shy 20 year old girl with Treacher Collins.
She has had no treatment to date - her parents are ill and unable to help her. We have managed to collect funds in order to finance orthodontic work here in Israel, and I am trying to find out about plastic (and other) surgery options. From what I gather, there is nobody in Israel with the relevant experience.
This young woman has great strength of character, overcoming society's disapproval on her own, graduating high school, volunteering, and finding a job to support herself.
I assume that corrective surgery would greatly boost her self-esteem, and allow her to feel more comfortable about herself. I hope that I could arrange partial funding for any necessary surgery, although very high costs might not allow us to continue.
So I have a few questions:
1) Does anybody on this list happen to have the connections which would allow them to find out if there are any doctors in Israel with the necessary experience (this would take care of financial problems)?
2) Where would you recommend we go in the U.S. (or Europe) to decide on treatment planning, and for treatment itself?
3) Where can I get financial assistance?
I have arranged for photographs and x-rays; I believe that she needs surgery in her jaws as the next step - she speaks very unclearly, but the doctors she has approached have not been very forthcoming in spelling out *exactly* what she needs, and how to move forward.