Royal Oak plastic surgeon rebuilds 9-year-old's nose, lip with life-changing procedures

ROYAL OAK, Mich. (FOX 2) - A Royal Oak plastic surgeon is known the world over for taking on some of the toughest cases, including his newest one: a 9-year-old girl who traveled from across the world with her family in search of hope.

Dr. Kongkrit Chaiyasate and little Aliz have become fast friends after just a few short weeks as the world-renowned plastic surgeon is changing the little girl's life.

The girl from Hungary found her way to Corewell Health's Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak after two bouts with leukemia, chemotherapy, and a bone marrow transplant. The cancer's now in remission but she's not out of the woods. While she was in the hospital back home, she developed a devastating fungal infection that ate away at her nose, lip, and the roof of her mouth that left her disfigured.

"There was a kid who looked at her like - ‘oh my God, you are so ugly’ and that was the point that we knew this can't happen again," Aliz's sister, Lili Misur said.

Lili, 19, transplants for Aliz and their family.

Doctors in Hungary said nothing could be done until Aliz turned 18 - but that was too long to risk her mental and emotional well-being and her family wanted to protect her. 

"The damage would be so hard in her soul and personality so thought that - we can't wait - and we have to do something," Lili said.

So they did their research and reached out via email to Dr. Kongkrit Chaiyasate, a plastic surgeon at Beaumont Health in Royal Oak. He responded within 30 minutes.

"The story, it's quite heartbreaking and I decided - okay we're going to help her," Dr. Chaiyasate said.

Aliz and her family arrived in October and put their trust in Dr. Chaiyasate and a series of surgeries funded by his craniofacial fund partnership with the Beaumont Foundation.

"It was a risky move because we need to get a lot of surgery done in a relatively short amount of surgeries with limited budget," he said. "We're dealing with a growing child who has no nose, a big hole in the pallet, and no lip."

In October, Dr. Chaiyasate and his teams performed a ten-hour microsurgery that took a flap from one of Aliz's forearms to create her lip and a flap from the other forearm to create her nose. Just a few days ago, the facial reconstruction began with a flap from her forehead to begin reconstructing her nose.

"I think we have hope and courage - it can be done," Dr. Chaiyasate said.

"We're so grateful that we can be here and we found him and it's really like a miracle to us," Lili said.

Today, Aliz can already eat and drink normally - and even whistle

Their family knows the little girl has a long way to go, with several more surgeries to come. But she's already shown all of us what it means to be brave.

"We're so proud of her, she's been through so many things - so many surgeries," Lili said. "Actually, she's the one who gives us hope and strength so - she's amazing

Her doctor thinks so too.

"So cute - she's so cute - i just want to keep her here - adopt her - don't tell her mom," joked Dr. Chaiyasate.

You can donate to help Aliz on the family's GoFundMe and learn how to help others at Beaumont's website.