Girl From Minsk Doing Well After Operation Belarussian Mother Brought Daughter To Montana For Surgery To Correct Defect

A young Belarussian girl who traveled halfway around the world for surgery here is going home this week, better able to speak and eat because of her operation.

“The result now is so wonderful,” Dr. Ljuba Nesterook said through a translator as she described the condition of her 7-year-old daughter, Anna. “She can pronounce many more letters - make many more sounds that are in the language.”

Anna, her light brown hair braided and looped, wore a big smile Tuesday as visitors arrived at the Ronald McDonald House, where the Nesterooks have been staying.

“I will tell them I found a lot of new friends,” Anna replied when asked what she will say about the United States upon seeing friends in Minsk, Belarus. Belarus is one of the Baltic States that became an independent nation when the Soviet Union broke up.

The story of how Anna and her mother, a pediatric surgeon, came to Billings involves many people who wanted to help the child get the care she needed for a palate defect. Key in arranging the surgery were some Montana connections to international medical volunteer work.

Some physicians in Montana gave Anna free medical care, St. Vincent Hospital waived charges and the Ronald McDonald House provided lodging.

Mother and daughter got to Billings in early October and the surgery occurred on Oct. 16, after a wait of 10 days or so that allowed Dr. Paul Byorth time to get acquainted with his patient. Two days after the operation, Anna was released from the hospital.

Dr. Nesterook, whose husband and son remained in Minsk, said political and economic upheaval have hurt health care in her country.

Anna was born with multiple health problems, which her mother suspects are related to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident that occurred more than a year before Anna’s birth.

She said doctors have seen increases in cancer and birth defects.