Boy receives surgery to replace 'white eyelashes'
A 10-year-old boy received plastic surgery in Shanghai to return his white eyelashes to black.
The boy, surnamed Xu from Suzhou of neighboring Jiangsu Province, started to lose the eyelash hair on his right eye a year ago, and then new white eyelashes grew in their place. He said he was depressed and laughed at by other children.
The family took the boy to the Naval Featured Medical Center of Second Military Medical University in Shanghai and were told that the white eyelashes were because of vitiligo in the boy’s eyelid.
“It is a very rare case and we have never seen such a patient,” said Dr Li Yufei, the boy’s chief doctor. “We decided on a surgery plan with two steps. We removed the white eyelashes first and then transplanted tiny black hairs from the back of his head in their place.”
The surgery was a success as the boy’s transplanted eyelash has survived. He said he was happy to play with other children again.
Dr Li Yufei points at the white eyelash on a 10-year-old boy's right eye.
