Nine-month-old Tendral Meytok Gurung, who was abandoned by her parents in a Nepalese Himalayan village owing to her facial deformity, was brought by a Buddhist nun Lama Tenzin to Virginia last year where she received a free cleft-palate surgery at Operation Smile, a medical charity that has treated thousands of children with facial deformities since 1982.
She died on Tuesday in a tub in Sunny Isles Beach where she was left unattended to for half-an-hour by her caretaker and Tenzin’s sister Samchue Negi.
Police have arrested Negi and charged her with child neglect and aggravated manslaughter of a child. Police say Negi left the infant unattended to while she talked on the phone.
The woman and the baby were staying at the home of a couple who financed their trip to the United States so the baby could receive cleft-palate surgery.
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Tendral first made headlines in December when Negi took her to Hampton Roads, Virginia, for free treatment to fix her cleft lip and cleft palate, according to The Virginian-Pilot newspaper.
´´The little girl recovered quickly and was a smiling, gurgling highlight of the international charity´s world summit meeting in January,´´ a Virginian-Pilot story said Wednesday, the day after Tendral was found dead.
The article said that during her passage through Virginia, Tendral had ``inspired schoolchildren, brought adults to tears and even had several people offer to adopt her.´´
Negi was the primary caretaker responsible for the care of the female infant, the police said in a statement. ``The subject [Negi] prepared a bath for the victim, and then left the victim unattended for approximately 30 minutes while she participated in a telephone conversation in a separate room.
``The victim was then discovered unresponsive by the subject. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded and transported the victim to the hospital, where she was pronounced deceased. The subject was arrested and charged.´´
A statement from Operation Smile said the charity was ``shocked and saddened to hear of the devastating, tragic death of 9-month-old Tendral Meytok Gurung in Florida. . . . We are distraught that her chance has been cut so short.´´
The statement said Tendral came to the United States for treatment on Dec. 18 and that Operation Smile co-founder and chief executive officer Dr. Bill Magee performed the surgery.
´´Tendral was released from the hospital two days later for recuperation in Virginia,´´ the statement said. ``Nearly one month later, she was fully recovered and there was no planned follow-up.´´
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