Popi Rani Das came to Toronto because of a promise.It was made nearly two years ago in a cramped hospital room on a top floor of the Acid Survivors Foundation Hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Das, then 27, had spent seven years in that room, in pain and often sick, after her husband gave her a glass of acid to drink.The clear, odourless liquid — Das had thought it was water — burned away her entire esophagus and most of her stomach. She needed the electrical outlet in her hospital room to power a blender so she could squeeze pureed meals into a feeding tube inserted into her small intestine.Since she could no longer swallow, it was the only way she could eat.Doctors in Bangladesh said she had little chance of getting better. But Das refused to believe them. One day, she knew, someone would walk into her hospital room and offer hope.That person was Toronto plastic surgeon Dr. Toni Zhong. She met Das by chance while travelling in Bangladesh in February 2016 on a medical mission to help women injured in grease fires.As director of the breast reconstruction program at University Health Network (UHN), Zhong knew Toronto General Hospital (a part of UHN) was one of the few places in the world that had the expertise to help Das. “I promised her I would take her case to the best surgeons I know,” Zhong says. “I promised: ‘I will try to find a way to help you.’ ”It took a year but Zhong kept her pledge. Das arrived in Toronto on Feb. 15, 2017. Ten months later, on Dec. 14, she gathered at Toronto General with her medical team and her mother, Ajanta, for an afternoon celebration to toast their many successes — and to say goodbye. Das will soon return to Bangladesh, healthy and happy and able — once again — to eat ice cream and cookies, her favourite foods.“After I go back home I will always think to myself I had come to this advanced country and this is where my life started again.”But the complex t ...
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