Story By: James King, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Real Press

These are the amazing before and after pictures that show the incredible transformation of a young woman with a facial deformity that left her jaw out of place.

The young woman identified by her name Xiao Qiu was given free surgery by medics at the Shenyang Sunline Plastic Surgery Hospital in China’s Liaoning province.

Surgeon Dr Zhu Shijiang said that the complexity of the task was comparable to his team having to climb Mount Everest but now more than a month later he has been able to show off the impressive results of the operation.

The young woman, aged 23, is now out of the recovery phase and has been discharged from hospital.

Local media referred to her as the “crooked face girl” but there was no sign of the deformity as she spoke to the press on her departure from hospital, saying: “I will firmly remember this day, Sunline gave me a new life, this is my birthday!”

She said that when she had been younger, the deformity had not been so severe and as it worsened, she had been to see experts in Beijing and Shanghai, who all said they had never seen such a case and were unable to offer any solutions.

There was also the question of money to pay for the operation, which the family were unlikely to be able to afford with limited resources.

She was contacted by the hospital after they saw her on a TV report.

Dr Zhu Shijiang added: “We had looked at the possibility of doing the maxillofacial deformity correction in stages, but the operation cycle and recovery period would be very long and could have possibly stretched into more than a year.

“This would have lengthened the patient’s psychological pressure and physical pain.

“Therefore, after a lot of planning, we combined multiple operations into one operation.

“Although it was complicated and difficult, it saved the patient a lot of pain and it was possible for her to recover in a much shorter period of time so that her new life could also begin earlier.”

Another member of the Sunline team, Dean Lingzhi, said that for him the most rewarding thing was the fact that she rarely smiled and never made eye contact with people when she first arrived with them, signs that she was suffering serve psychological pressure and had a lack of confidence and self-esteem.

He said however that now she looks people in the eye, is much more active in conversations and smiles frequently.

After the surgery she was contacted by many people offering her a career as a social media influencer, but she declined saying that she wanted to be a teacher.

She said she also plans to find love and get married now that she has a good chance of finding a husband, something she says was not possible before.

Apart from the young woman herself, the biggest smiles also came from her elderly grandmother who said: “I’m almost 80 years old. I have spent most of my life living for the children. Everything I do is for them. Xiao Qiu’s illness was like an illness in my heart.

“Seeing how brave she was in dealing with this and how she looks now, I see a young woman who is worthy of her mother who tragically died young, but whose life will now be made complete through her daughter!”

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