She was born without a jaw and mouth, her relatives gave her up because they couldn't look at her, and this is what she is today: Everyone is amazed by the change and the skills of the doctors - Photos in the first comment

 

A girl from Russia named Darina Spengler became famous all over the world after the story of her life and deformity became public. Namely, this 11-year-old girl was born, as the media wrote, “without half her face” – but in fact she had no chin and no lips.

Her mother Elena fainted when she first saw her in the incubator, and for years her daughter was the subject of ridicule and disparaging comments.

The girl was never officially diagnosed, but it is believed that the facial malformation is the result of the rare Nager syndrome. All this made her daily life extremely difficult. Because of the deformity, she could not speak, she could not feed herself. Her parents had to completely change their lives in order to devote themselves entirely to her, to raise her, educate her and keep her alive – because, unfortunately, she could hardly do anything on her own. Fortunately, fate smiled on them, allowing Darina to smile too.

However, until five years ago, the future of Elena and Yuri, as the girl's father is called, did not seem so cheerful and smiling.

Elena with her daughter Darina Photo: The Siberian Times / Profimedia

"When I saw her for the first time – I fainted"

After the birth, Elena quit her job to take care of Darina, and Yuri fought for their daughter's medical care. When a mother remembers the first moment she saw her baby, her body shivers.

"My eyes went black and I fainted. When I recovered from the shock, I remember Darina crying in pain while blood was flowing from her mouth," she said in a 2019 media interview, adding that doctors had even advised her to leave the child in an orphanage.

"It's terrible when you see a baby with a damaged head crying and you can't help it. She cried day and night, and I cried with her," Elena recalls.

However, she and her husband Yuri (49) did not want to give up the child, and dedicated all their time to searching and gathering help for their heiress, believing that somewhere in the world there was an expert who could help her and solve the problem.

"We don't hide it from the world"

"We don't hide her from the world. She goes everywhere with us. And my husband Yuri takes her everywhere. People told us to put a mask on her, and he told them not to look at her if they didn't want to, but to accept her as she is," Elena said of the difficult experiences they faced at that time.

But – there were more good and humane people, fortunately. When her story became public, it moved many people, and so a campaign was launched to raise funds for the operation.

Soon there was enough money in the account for Darina and Elena to travel to the UK, more precisely to London, for a special operation (the first of many) that would give Darina the face she never had.

She was six years old at the time and underwent surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital. The operation cost £67,400.

Elena and Darina Photo: Viktor Huseynov / east2west news / Profimedia

Then her mother expressed her hope that Darina would breathe easier after the facial reconstruction surgery, but she was most happy that her daughter would speak and finally call her "mom."

After the first operation, she learned to smile.

When she returned to her native Russia for the first time, her father hugged her tightly and said, "You are beautiful."

"You see, she learned to smile," Elena then added with tears of joy in her eyes.

By the way, since the day Darina was born, this family has experienced a lot of cruelty – not only from strangers, but also from their own family, who have completely cut off all contact with them. Only Elena's sister remained with them.

Darina wasn't even accepted into kindergarten because they said the other kids would be afraid of her. Her parents bought her lots of toys, but as her mother says: "There's no substitute for friends."

She started school 3 years ago.

And when everything seemed bleak, as mentioned above, life began to “play in their favor” after the surgery, so the girl started school in 2021 – when she was 9 years old. Until then, she was homeschooled, partly due to social stigma, partly to recover from major surgery on her face, and she couldn’t even speak properly.

Meanwhile, on both Darina and Elena's social media, we can see the progress of this brave girl. The proud mother always shares with her Instagram followers when her little one learns a new word, while on Darina's profile we can see how she spends her days at school and how much she enjoys such an atmosphere.

Darina is now home, and the family is collecting donations for a new operation that should provide Darina with a better upper jaw and lip.