Syrian girl born without legs gets new prosthetics in Turkey

ISTANBUL - The Associated Press

The eight-year-old Syrian girl, quietly crying in an Istanbul clinic, was overwhelmed by the new set of prosthetic legs she had just received and taken aback by the cameras pointed at her by journalists attending the fitting.

Maya Meri has been in the spotlight since images of her plight hit social media last month. She was filmed in a camp for the displaced in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province walking around on contraptions her father made from tuna cans, plastic tubes and fabric.

Maya was born without legs because of a condition called congenital amputation. Her story moved one Turkish prosthetics specialist to reach out to Turkey’s largest humanitarian organization, which evacuated her from Syria.