Disfigured Boy Of The Forest Gets Help -- Burned, Banished, Isolated Child Has Learned How To Laugh

JOHANNESBURG , South Africa - Mumbo Sepo was so disfigured by burns when he was barely a year old that his family left their Zambian village and raised him in isolation in the forest.

His spine was deformed. His head grew attached to his left shoulder. He could not close his eyes. His lower lip fused itself to his jaw, baring his teeth. Outsiders couldn't understand his speech.

Now, at age 14, he has had three operations at a South African hospital with more to follow. Surgeons, charmed by his infectious new laugh, hope he will be able to lead a normal life.

"He is a special child of God. His survival so far has been a miracle," spokeswoman Marlene Parsons of Johannesburg's privately run Garden City Clinic, said Thursday. "We want to help him have an independent adult life."

Mumbo's treatment in South Africa is perhaps another sign of change in a country that has thrown off apartheid.

As a little child, he received no treatment for the burns he suffered when he fell into a cooking fire in Muchomo village in eastern Zambia. His disfigurement was so severe his family was hounded out of the village, Parsons said.

"Mumbo, his twin brother, his two sisters and his mother were in the bush in a really rural region for 12 years with no means of support," Parson said. "They had a shelter with an overhang of grass, twigs and leaves. It looked like a wolf's lair.

"He has always been totally isolated from the rest of the world, and human contact for the family has been minimal. His twin used to beg from people in villages. That's what they ate."

Parsons said Gladys Tavaris, who found Mumbo in the forest, took the Sepo family about a year ago to Zambian President Frederick Chiluba's wife, Verah, patron of a children's foundation.

"She (Chiluba) has unofficially adopted the family, and the foundation has paid for Mumbo's treatment so far," Parsons said. "We have cut costs, but it's still worked out at 30,000 rand ($10,500)."

The boy's head has been separated from his shoulder.

"Muscle structure was identified to create working eyelids. He can now close his eyes for the first time. Before, to sleep, he would completely roll back his eyes. . . . Normally one's eyes would dry up and one would go blind, but his eyesight is good."

The next phase of operations will be more intricate and includes reconstructing the boy's ears, eliminating scarring and inserting a silicone balloon in his head to bring his hairline forward, Parsons said. "It will be very traumatic for him."

Complicating matters, Mumbo's twin, Thomas, has not been heard from since leaving to look for work a year ago. He hoped to raise money for Mumbo's operations.

Tavaris accompanied Mumbo to South Africa because she could understand him and interpret his needs to the medical staff. His bottom lip has now been cut loose from the jaw.

"He used to make animal sounds, but his speech has been improving," Parsons said. "And he has the most infectious laugh now."