George

George arrived on September 23, 2009 from a foster home in his home province in far western China to get treatment for an undiagnosed condition affecting his foot and tailbone. He is 17 years old, and since he was about 7, he has had episodes where an infection causes an open sore on his foot or on his tailbone. The infection often worsens, going deeper into the tissue until it reaches the bone. In his home province, doctors attempted to treat it with surgery many years ago, and it seemed to help for a while, but now his condition has worsened. Doctors in his home province do not know what causes it, and doctors in Beijing have not yet been able to complete the tests necessary to diagnose the cause. When he arrived, his tailbone was fully exposed, and doctors suspect gangrene has set in, as part of the tailbone rotted away. The effect is quite severe, as currently his doctor can touch his intestines through the open wound. Thankfully, he has not had any sort of major infections set into his body; it seems to be isolated to the actual wound area, but we know that time is of the essence. His Beijing physicians hope to quickly diagnose the actual cause of this condition so that treatment can begin soon.