Neurosurgeons Ali Baaj, MD, and Kumar Kakarla, MD, have successfully performed corrective spine surgery on a severely deformed Ugandan orphan at the Tucson-based University of Arizona Medical Center.
Dr. Baaj is director of the spinal neurosurgery program and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Arizona. Dr. Kakarla is a neurosurgeon at Phoenix-based Barrow Neurosurgical Associates.
Luwasi Muhammed, the orphan, is approximately eight years old and suffered from a severely deformed spine caused by tuberculosis. Four years ago, he came under the care of African Children's Charities, a Tucson-based organization that sponsors an orphanage in Uganda.
Dr. Baaj, Dr. Kakarla and the University of Arizona Medical Center donated their services.
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