For an Injured Boy, a Chance at a Better Life

But his recovery ran into problems. X-rays showed that ligaments elsewhere in his neck were not healing. Yaun was afraid that vertebrae would shift and Stephan would face gradual weakening of his extremities. In July, she and orthopedic surgeon Laurel Blakemore teamed up for the delicate job of fusing four vertebrae in Stephan's neck.

The cervical spine in a 6-year-old is small. Think turkey neck. Once the two surgeons had made their incision, they began the painstaking task of running titanium screws through bone only slightly thicker than the screws. And they had to avoid a lattice of major arteries, nerves and the spinal cord itself, much of which they couldn't even see.

To navigate where any slip might mean paralysis for Stephan, they used a new tool in the operating room, a CT scan called the O-arm. The two surgeons first ran a thin wire where they thought each screw should go. They then used the scanner without having to leave the OR. If all looked good, they inserted a screw.

The process was nerve-racking. "The last thing you want to do is to hurt a child," Yaun said, adding that the doctors also wanted to preserve Stephan's ability to move his neck. "We wanted him to go back to being a regular kid."

Today, Stephan is a healthy and athletic-looking 6-year-old who loves Thomas trains and dreams again of playing basketball.

As for that lost year of kindergarten, forget about it. According to his mom, he passed all the readiness tests his principal at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring could throw at him.

Today, Stephan is a first-grader.

How to Help

The story of Stephan Khangaa is typical of the amazing outcomes at Children's and the commitment of surgeons such as Yaun and Blakemore.

Today, Stephan's mother thanks God for Children's Hospital. "I'm absolutely sure they saved his life," she said.

And they brought all the available care, expertise and technology to bear on his case without asking Mary Khangaa, who was working at a supermarket at the time, how she intended to pay.

The hospital has a policy of treating children first. Families pay what they can, and no child is turned away. That generosity is what this campaign is about: raising money to help cover bills of children whose families don't have insurance or other means to pay.

We hope to raise $500,000 by Jan. 18, with your help. So far, readers have contributed $46,876.

To donate, send a check or money order payable to Children's Hospital to Washington Post Campaign, P.O. Box 17390, Baltimore, Md. 21297-1390. That's the post office box of our bank, Chevy Chase. All funds go to Children's Hospital in Washington.

To contribute by phone using Visa or MasterCard, call 202-334-5100 and follow the instructions.

All gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law.