Despite living in pain every day for over two decades, 27-year-old Narangerel* chose to dedicate her life to helping others, training as a nurse in Khuvsgul Aimag, the northernmost province in Mongolia.
Badly burnt as a two-year-old when her synthetic clothing melted to her skin following exposure to a hot oven, Narangerel experienced pain every day for the next two decades.
Suffering from burns reaching from her abdomen down to her thighs, the young woman’s severe scarring and injuries also left her with an inability to have children, restricted her day-to-day movement and meant she was unable to lift heavy objects.
But Narangerel would not let her challenges impede her. She trained as a nurse wanting to provide care to others.
Thanks to her experience in the local hospital, Narangerel was aware of Interplast and in 2018, her role reversed when the healthcare worker became the patient, as she underwent her life-changing surgery.
Following a four-month recovery from the surgery and an even longer wait for the skin on her thighs to fully heal, Narangerel no longer suffers from her childhood injuries.
In an interview in October 2021, Narangerel had tears in her eyes as she described her life before the Interplast team performed her surgery, and her new life afterwards. “Everyone said I was hopeless,” Narangerel said of her previous life. “When I was in school, I didn’t go to physical education classes at all.”
“The Interplast doctors have given me a new life and hope in my life. My abdomen is now healed and (I am) without any problems with childbirth. I tell people with burns about this program,” she said. “The people at the Interplast program were really great doctors and nurses. They explained the whole process to me. That’s why I’ve come from such a far, from remote Soum to give this interview. I’m so grateful to the Interplast.”
In addition to providing surgeries like Narangerel’s, Interplast is working with partners in Mongolia to reduce the incidence of preventable injuries like the burns Narangerel suffered as a two-year-old.
*Not the patient’s real name
