A five-year-old child who was badly burned in a house fire when he was a baby has written to Father Christmas asking for a “new face” so he could look like other children, in a heartbreaking letter that is going viral online.
The little boy, named Bakhtiyer Sindrov, was an infant laying in a cot beside the fireplace when a blaze broke out and caused the baby to suffer terrible injuries. Family friend
He is from a poor family and his treatment started several years after the blaze when the NGO learned about his situation by chance.
Bakhtiyer was a baby sleeping in his cot beside the fireplace in his home in Uzbekistan when a blaze broke out and caused the terrible injuries. Family friend Olga Ryabeva told the press: “He was very little when his face, head, neck and shoulders got burned. He was basically melting alive.”
For the next few years of his life, Bakhtiyer could not even open his mouth and he had to be fed by a tube, which caused his teeth to rot. The little child was so badly scarred that his parents reportedly cover him with a blanket when they go outside with him.
The little boy, however, yearns to be like other children. Bakhtiyer, who now lives in Talgar, south-eastern Kazakhstan, shared his desire for a new face to Father Christmas in a letter that he dictated to Santa.
In the heartbreaking letter, the young child appeals: “Hello Father Christmas! I was burned when I was a little boy. I lost my face in the fire and since then I have to hide from people because they are scared of me.
“I am scared of myself when I am looking in the mirror. I do not have a nose, ears or hair. My mum says that I will not go to school. I am often in pain, but I do not cry. My mother does.
“Father Christmas, give me a new face, please, I will never cry in my life then. I just want to be like other children.”
The letter was sent to a charity in Kazakhstan that is hosting a fundraising campaign called ‘Letters To Santa’.
Little Bakhtiyer has received medical treatment in India over the past year and doctors have succeeded in giving the child new lips, teeth and eyelids through reconstructive surgery.
Doctors are now working to stretch the boy’s neck skin, so as to use it to replace his completely burned off facial skin in the near future. Bakhtiyer is set to undergo another round of surgery later this month.
