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Show , r' ' lpB:Bi PHOTOGRAPHYGary Blodgett A SIMPLE AMERICAN toy fascinates Judith Rodriguez, center, and her mother, Luz Maria, as Gary Mangum, left, and Elder Darrell Mangum watch. Judith is scheduled to have plastic surgery on both arms. Judith arrives for her surgery By GARY R. BLODGETT News Editor BOUNTIFUL -- Judith Rodriguez Rodri-guez is "home" with her adopted American family -- and plastic surgery on the beautiful girl's badly burned arms was scheduled to begin be-gin today (Thursday). IT WAS "get-acquainted day" for the little Mexican gal from Puebla, a city of about 800,000 population located about 50 miles from Mexico City. Her temporary family, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Mangum, 360 E. 1200 N., Bountiful, welcomed Judith and her mother, Luz Maria, when their Western Airlines flight arrived about ab-out 10:45 p.m. Tuesday. BUT THE real story is the "miracle" "mira-cle" - or several miracles - that occurred to make it possible for Judith to obtain her passport for emergency medical treatment in the United States. It was treatment that can not be obtained in her native na-tive land. Judith was severely burned over the upper part of her body when she fell into a tub of scalding water about five years ago. Today Judith, who turned 8 on April 1 1 , faces the problem of skin cancer if her aged burns do not receive plastic surgery. THROUGH the efforts of "Project "Pro-ject Sunshine," enough money was raised - much of it from Bountiful Boun-tiful area donations - to fly Judith and her mother from Mexico City to Salt Lake City for the badly needed operation and extended rehabilitation re-habilitation that will be necessary. Dr. Gregory Kjar is to perform the surgery - at no cost to the family fami-ly or Project Sunshine. Western Airlines flew Judith and her mother to Salt Lake City, also at no cost. SEVERAL assisting with the surgery and rehabilitation will be Continued on page 2 Jndith aurives for sto geny Continued from front page donating at least a part of their time and talent. Lakeview Hospital is reducing its charges in the girl's behalf. And many others have donated don-ated money - more than $13,000 -to help defray expenses. The story of Judith Rodriguez began to unfold several months ago when Elder Darrell Mangum visited vi-sited the family in their Mexican home. He wrote his parents about the medical surgery needed for the girl, noting that the family was too poor to pay for medical costs even if the surgery could be done locally. loc-ally. "IT WAS my parents' idea to have the surgery and I just did all I could on that end (Mexico) to make it possible," said Elder Mangum. "And it has been the greatest experience ex-perience of my life." Darrell's brother, Gary, also played a big role in obtaining passports pass-ports and making passage possible for Judith and her mother. He spent six weeks living with the Rodriguez family. GARY SAID it was a "combination "combina-tion of miracles" that the passport was obtained in time for the two to return to America when Darrell was released. "Paper work was not done early as requested and the day we went to Mexico City to pickup the passports, pass-ports, the U.S. Embassy had been closed and no passports were being issued. It was the day after the U.S. attack on Lybia and security was extremely tight," Gary relates. re-lates. "EVERYWHERE we went, we were told there could be no visas -that we would have to wait several weeks. But there was no time to wait. Everything else was ready to go." Finally, with a lot of help from many unknown friends including Sen. Orrin Hatch - things fell into place and with only two days to spare, Judith and her mother had passports in hand. photographyGo ry Biodgett ELDER DARRELL MANGUM holds Judith Rodriguez as Judith's mother, Luz Maria, and Gary Mangum observe the "welcome" sign on front of the Mangum home. |