Turkish Baby With a Rare Condition Gets Incredible

This is an unimaginable story about the wonders of drugs, and the arms of the good surgeons through whom these wonders come about. I’m outdated enough to keep in mind 1987, when the world marveled that Dr. Ben Carson carried out the first profitable craniopagus to separate West German twins conjoined at the cranium. Because of Dr. Carson’s breakthrough and success, other uncommon and debilitating medical situations in infants and newborns are now being addressed, significantly in nations that still have developing or extraordinarily restricted medical capabilities.

Gifted Hands is the subject of this week’s Feel-Good Friday. Hat tip to my colleague Becky Noble. We are at CPAC 2026 as half of the “Media Pit Mafia” (as fellow colleague Ward Clark has dubbed us). Becky is a proud St. Louisian, and pitched me this story from her metropolis over Thursday evening dinner.

Eighteen months in the past, Turkish husband and spouse, Emircan and Gulten Buga, gave start to a stunning child lady they named Elisa. To her dad and mom, she was excellent in every manner. However, in the womb, Elisa developed “Ulnar Dimelia” or Mirror Hand Syndrome, a condition that roughly one in a million people are born with. Elisa didn’t develop a radius bone, which meant she would endure vital limitations transferring her wrist and elbow, and her shoulder actions can be stunted. This also resulted in Elisa being born with eight fingers on one hand, as the X-ray image below exhibits.

Dr. Charles Goldfarb, orthopedic surgeon at St. Louis Children’s Hospital said in an interview with First Alert 4’s Morgan Harris, “Mirror Hand is incredibly uncommon, and I even…even surgeons like myself who take care of a great deal of kids almost never see this in their career. So it’s really uncommon.”

No kidding. I get sympathy pains when I read about medical situations like these; so, while studying Elisa’s story, I immediately grabbed my decrease arm.

Mirror hand syndrome is an exceptionally uncommon congenital start defect that impacts the hand, and in some situations, it could also affect the forearm and elbow. The first case was seen in 1852. Since then, there have been fewer than 100 instances reported. pic.twitter.com/6bwIub6r1Q

— Morbid Knowledge (@MorbidKnowledge) February 5, 2026

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Donors to the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation contribute to an International Free Care Fund, so the Bugas had been linked with the hospital’s orthopedic surgical procedure staff. The Bugas spoke no English, so through translators and translation software program, the method for Elisa to obtain reconstructive surgical procedure to heal her condition had begun, First Alert 4 reported. 

“From the very beginning, he was really warm, genuine, and gave us a lot of hope. Honestly, the trust and support he gave us played a huge role in our decision to come to St. Louis,” said Emircan Buga, Elisa’s father.

Emircan and his wife, Gulten, only speak Turkish and used a translator. They said the language difference never got in the way of their daughter receiving care.

Initially, I had conversations with them, from afar, but we talked on the phone and we did FaceTime, just communicating about her condition, [Dr.] Goldfarb said.

“They supplied us with immense help concerning every downside we’d encounter or face along the way in which. We would love to thank them for the help they supplied, both financially and psychologically,” Emircan said.

Through help from the St. Louis Children’s Hospital Foundation, the International Office of Washington University, and the Ronald McDonald House, the Bugas had been in a position to take the 5,800 mile journey from Turkey to the United States. On January 30, 2026, Elisa skilled the miracle of Dr. Goldfarb and his staff’s surgical abilities in St. Louis, as they accomplished the three-hour reconstructive surgical procedure to construct a radius bone, align and synchronize it with her ulnar bone, and take away the additional fingers.

Truly unimaginable.

What I like about good people like Dr. Goldfarb is that they keep their childlike enthusiasm for the numerous work that they do. Dr. Goldfarb’s recent marvel over having the ability to rework a younger life is both inspiring and instructive. As he told the interviewer:

…[I]t’s so enjoyable for me as a surgeon, who interacts with youngsters younger and outdated, but at an early level in their life, to watch what occurs after. And I do suppose a surgical procedure like this is life-changing and will actually help her succeed in all points.

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Editor’s Note: At PurpleState, it isn’t all about politics and coverage. We like to convey consideration to what’s good in the world, with columns like “Feel-Good Friday,” “Start Your Weekend Right,” and “Hoge’s Heroes.”

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