Marlon from Honduras lived with his mother and two sisters in poverty stricken Tegucigalpa. Marlon suffered from a severe case of kyphoscoliosis, a condition causing not only a lateral curve of the spine, but also a “hunchback”. His mother had been unable to afford medical care for him since first discovering his condition as a young boy. Finally, at age 16, a doctor referred him to HTC’s International Partner in Tegucigalpa and he was on his way to Phoenix for surgery. Unfortunately, due to his age and normal hardening of the bones, physicians were unable to completely straighten his curvature, but performed a spinal fusion with a titanium rod placement to stop the progression of his disease. Marlon already had one lung being affected and a curvature in his esophagus was making it sometimes difficult to swallow. He was operated on by Dr. Richard Shindell at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Marlon returned to Honduras in August 2005 but has since been invited to come back by his former host family to live with them and to attend college in Arizona.

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Marlon with his...

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