Mission of mercy: Local woman on a crusade to help badly burned Chinese girl

Debi Strong of Bigfork remembers her first thought when she caught sight of Ai Liu’s severely scarred face.

“She just looked like she was melted,” Strong said.

 On a tour in China, she caught but a quick look at the child’s face, made more deformed as tightening scars pulled her left eye lid to the point of tearing and held her mouth open.

That moment became etched in her mind.

“She looked me in the eye and I looked her in the eye,” Strong said.

Ai Liu’s gaze went straight to her heart, launching Strong on a crusade to find help for the little stranger in a foreign land. On this Easter, Strong has found the medical help Ai Liu needs through Mending Kids International, The Children’s Burn Center in Los Angeles and plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman.

Her last obstacle remains finding a host family to care for and love her while Grossman fixes her face so people no longer look away.

“I’ve been trying to spread the word that if anyone knows anyone in the L.A. area that could help with finding a family to host her, please help,” Strong said.

She also needs to raise money to help cover transportation and paperwork expenses for Ai Liu to come to the United States. Plastic surgeons have told her the work needs to be done as soon as possible.

Strong has seen the evidence from the recent photos emailed from China.

“She already looks worse than the photos in January,” she said. “She is burned over 75 percent of her poor little body. It’s really amazing that she survived.”

Ai Liu, 9, lives at the same orphanage in Maoming where Strong and her husband, Rich, had adopted their own Chinese daughter Xiaoxiao, now 12, as a baby back in 1999.

Ever since their rushed trip to pick up Xiaoxiao, she has wanted to return to China with her husband and daughter. They were back at the orphanage on the way to a reunion with Wu Yan, the director, when Strong locked eyes with the little girl with the melted face. 

She pushed Wu Yan to divulge the few details they knew about Ai Liu and her severe burns.

“They think she was about 2 when police officers found her in the street wailing,” Strong said. “The hospital did some life-saving procedures and that’s about it.”

A few years later, she had two more surgeries in Hong Kong. No one knew exactly how Ai Liu had been burned over so much of her body.

Judging from the patterns of the scarring, Strong has a strong suspicion of what happened.

“Both her hands were badly burned,” she said. “It’s obvious to me that she pulled a wok (of oil) or something down.”

After so many years, the scars have begun to contract, tearing her eyelid and pulling her mouth open. Strong told the orphanage that she could make no promises but she would see if she could find help for Ai Liu in the United States.

Back home in January, she went to work making contacts. Her first hurdle was trying to reach people during Chinese New Year, a celebration bigger even than the traditional festivities of Christmas.

“On Jan. 20, I finally got pictures from the orphanage,” Strong said.

She emailed the photos to Dr. Sarah Nargi, a local plastic surgeon, who had performed reconstructive surgery on Strong after a bout with breast cancer a few years earlier. She was amazed to hear back quickly.

“She wrote back that she would do the surgery,” Strong said.

Next, Velinda Stevens, CEO of Northwest Healthcare, offered to absorb all the cost and provide an apartment. Strong was over the moon with gratitude at their generosity.

Then, by chance, she came in contact with a woman named Nancy Robertson of The Grace Children’s Foundation, a nonprofit in New York dedicated to helping orphaned and disadvantaged children worldwide. She initially contacted Robertson for advice on getting visas for Ai Liu.

 Strong wrote a brief synopsis about her mission and emailed it off.

“Two minutes later, the phone rings,” she said.

It was Robertson, who was in Beijing working to get hospitals interested in providing charity care, a new concept in the country. She asked Strong to tell her more.

 Robertson ended up introducing Strong to Marchelle Sellers at Mending Kids International. Strong was put in contact with Carol Horvitz, executive director of The Chidren’s Burn Foundation, through a friend in California.

She recalled the first words she heard from Horvitz.

“She said ‘I’m going to make you a very happy woman.’”

 Horvitz said the burn foundation was willing to take Ai Liu’s case and pay for all of her surgeries until she reaches 18. She directed Strong to her website, www.childburn.org, to view photos of incredible improvements made by Grossman on terribly burned patients.

After submitting photos of Ai Liu’s whole body to the plastic surgeon, Grossman committed to years of working  on her. The Children’s Burn Foundation and Mending Kids International agreed to work together to pay her expenses while in the United States.

Strong prays now for one last miracle — finding a sponsor family in Los Angeles or someone from China to stay with Ai Liu at a Ronald McDonald House for a year.

“We are still working on that, but if all else fails, we may have to consider another venue,” she said. “I am heartsick at the moment, as we all wait.”

Strong said that she keeps apologizing to her orphanage contacts for the delays. She said that they told her they were used to having to wait from growing up in China.

Strong said many films and other artistic works produced within the country have sad endings.

“I want this one to have a happy ending for them.”

Anyone with a contact or suggestion for a host family is encouraged to call Strong at 471-0565. Northwest Healthcare Foundation has agreed to accept checks or cash donations to pay Ai Liu’s initial transportation and paperwork expenses.

Make out checks to Northwest Healthcare Foundation with Ai Liu’s name on the memo line or on a sticky note with cash and bring or send it to: Northwest Healthcare Foundation, 310 Sunnyview Lane, Kalispell, MT 59901.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com .