With Help, Burn Victim Has Chance at Fresh Start

When he was 6 months old, Oscar de Leon pulled a flickering candle off a table and into his crib, burning off his eyelid, melting his nose and lip and disfiguring his arm and hand.

In March, 15 years after the fire, the Orange County humanitarian group Xela Aid brought the Guatemalan teenager to the United States, where surgeons have begun to reconstruct his face.

Donating their skills, plastic surgeons already have used a piece of rib to rebuild de Leon’s right nostril and loosened the skin around his lip, said Leslie Baer, Xela Aid’s founder. Beverly Hills surgeon Dr. Andrew Berman recently began constructing a new eyelid.

“His appearance has already improved greatly,” Baer said. “He’s able to breathe out of the right side of his face for the first time.”

But Baer said de Leon, whose parents earn about $117 a month in Guatemala, still needs at least five surgeries at a greatly reduced cost of $500 each. Although the surgeons are donating their time, Xela Aid must pay the hospital and associated surgical costs.

Baer said anyone wishing to help can contact her at (714) 778-1877.