Doctors bring hope to Indonesian girl.

Eight-year-old Mawarni Zega, from the village of Hilisebua on Nias Island, Indonesia, is the youngest of 10 children. Mawarni's father is a rubber tree farmer. Mawarni was born with a birth defect called an encephalocele--basically, a hole in her skull that allowed brain membranes to protrude and form a large bulge above her nose. The defect was not only unsightly, but could potentially lead to other, more serious complications such as meningitis. However, there was little that people in her family's economic circumstances could do to help the girl.

On March 28, a massive 8.7 magnitude earthquake destroyed large parts of Nias Island. Almost 1,000 people were killed, and thousands were left homeless. During the aftermath, the U.S. Navy hospital ship Mercy served as a base of operations for doctors traveling by helicopter to treat earthquake victims. The nonprofit organization Project Hope organized doctors from all over the U.S. to serve one-month volunteer terms on the ship. When doctors came to Mawarni's village, the girl's mother, Adilia, asked them if they could help her daughter.

Because the Mercy lacked facilities to perform such complicated reconstructive surgery, Mawarni's case was turned over to Dr. Donald Van Nimwegen, a Seattle anesthesiologist with Healing the Children, who coordinated a cooperative effort with private and government agencies to bring Mawarni to the United States.

Upon learning of Mawarni's situation, Dr. Jeffrey Leonard, a neurosurgeon, and Dr. Anna Kuang, a plastic surgeon, volunteered to perform the surgery at St. Louis Children's hospital. Additional medical personnel donated their time. Dr. Leonard commented on the willingness of everyone involved to donate their time: "I have yet to have somebody say 'no.'"

According to reports from the AP and NBC affiliate KSDK-TV in St. Louis, a donor paid the airfare for Mawarni, her mother, and an interpreter to travel to St. Louis. A facility called YouthBridge Community Center in Creve Coeur, which provides housing for hospital patients and their families traveling to St. Louis to receive medical care, gave Mawarni and her mother a place to stay.

After the family learned about the upcoming surgery, a reporter asked Mawarni why she was smiling. She replied: "Because I will get surgery for my nose. And I would not see America if I did not get this surgery."