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Brave Alan set for 12-hour op
15.10.07
COURAGEOUS Donegal
teenager Alan Doherty has arrived in New York for
the second phase of groundbreaking surgery to build
him a chin.
Earlier this year, the 17-year old, whose father
Danny is from Clonmany, underwent a world-first
procedure where a piece of his hip bone was grafted
on to his back. |
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On Wednesday, surgeons
at the pioneering Mount Sinai Hospital will
transplant the bone to Alan's lower jaw in an
attempt to shape it into a chin.
His aunt, Grace McColgan said the operation was
scheduled to take a marathon 12 hours but that Alan
was upbeat.
"Alan will be under for 12 hours. This is a big one.
Having said that, the first operation was supposed
to last for 12 hours too but things went so well, it
was over in 10 hours. Hopefully, it will all go as
well the second time around. |
"Alan was in great form
heading off. He wasn't a bit nervous and is just
looking forward to seeing how the operation will go.
"It could be a couple of weeks before we really see
how successful the operation was and he could be in
bandages for quite a while."
Alan and his parents arrived at JFK Airport around
9pm local time on Saturday and received a police
escort to his hotel.
Grace confirmed that a total of more than €360,000
had already been sent to the US to pay for the
surgery while more was needed for contingencies.
"With surgery like this that has never been done
before, we don't know what kind of follow up care
Alan is going to need so we need to make sure we
have a contingency fund to cover all eventualities
and future trips to the States," she said.
On Friday, another member of the Friends of Alan
Doherty campaign rubbished claims that Alan was snubbed by RTE's Late Late Show in favour of an interview by
Martin Cahill's author daughter Francis. Paul
McBride said the interview was only postponed.
"I've been in negotiations with the Late, Late for
some time now. The interview was purely rescheduled.
"We're personally happy about that. We have been
given assurances that Alan and his mother and father
will be appearing on the Late Late Show when they
return," said Mr. McBride. Check out Alan's website
at
www.friendsofalandoherty.com . |
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