Youssif gains courage with second surgery

Editor's note: CNN agreed not to use the full names of the family members in this article due to concern for their safety.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- "Don't be afraid, I'm just going to get my operation done and then I'll be home with you."

Those are the words of 5-year-old Youssif to his mother the night before his second surgery.

The next morning Youssif was wheeled into the operating room, tightly clutching his father's hand and crying slightly, but putting on a brave front.

Youssif's second surgery lasted three hours. A team of surgeons, led by Dr. Peter Grossman, Monday removed the temporary cadaver skin they had placed Thursday on Youssif's scarred face. They replaced the skin with a full tissue skin graft taken from Youssif's abdomen.

Grossman said that before the end of the week he will have an idea whether the grafts have taken, but doctors will not know for another couple of weeks whether the grafts are surviving.

For now, Youssif will have respite from the operating table, but the long process of healing this horribly scarred child is in its initial stages. Insurgents in Baghdad doused Youssif in gasoline and set him on fire early this year.

"He'll go through a period of time now which will allow him to heal," Grossman said. "We've done a lot of surgery on him in the last week, and we want him to rest up a bit, but starting probably the week after next we'll begin the expansion process."

The expansion process involves gradually inflating tissue expanders -- balloon-like modules -- that were inserted in Youssif's right cheek and under his chin on Thursday. Saline will inflate the balloons to create extra skin over the next few months. The doctors will then use the skin on Youssif's scars.

In the recovery room, Zainab, Youssif's mother, gently kissed her child's hand as he took delicate breaths and moaned slightly. His father gripped his tiny foot, but then, unable to bear it any longer, turned away from his son's hospital bed to compose himself.

Youssif has quickly become popular at the center, often entertained with three gaming consoles in his room while at the same time watching the antics of his favorite cartoon, "Tom and Jerry." That's when he's not playfully kicking helium balloons or throwing marbles at the adults.

His parents have been at his side day and night, taking turns baby-sitting his bubbly infant sister, Ayaa, who is too young to visit her brother in the burn unit. Watch Youssif's surgeon explain the boy's second surgery »

The two -- normally inseparable -- haven't seen each other since Wednesday.

To ease the distance, their parents bring the smiling little 1-year-old with her light brown curly hair outside Youssif's hospital room window to wave at her brother.

Ayaa's giggling and drooling face brings the parents little respite from the burdening thoughts of the painful journey that faces their other child -- one that no one should have to go through.

"My tummy hurts" Youssif mumbled to his mother.

"It's nothing," she lied to ease his mind. "They've just put some medicine on it."

But then she confessed, "He already knows that they used skin from his stomach." E-mail to a friend

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