The doctors who fitted a little girl from Afghanistan with a prosthetic arm knew it would enable her to do more things - they never would have guessed just how much.
Less than a year ago, seven-year-old Shah Bibi Tarakhail was home in Afghanistan when she sustained devastating injuries in an explosion that tragically killed her brother.
The violent explosion destroyed Shah Bibi’s right eye and took off most of her right arm.
The little girl was brought to America by charity the Children of War Foundation, where she was able to receive free medical treatment.
Shah Bibi was fitted with a prosthetic arm and mere weeks after the doctors strapped on the new limb, the child was creating the most beautiful collection of paintings.
As her friends from the Children of War Foundation and the Shriners Hospital for Children in LA looked on with delight, Shah Bibi got busy painting, producing some beautiful pieces which have stunned them all.
When artist Davyd Whaley met the little girl at the Galerie Michael gallery in Beverly Hills, he called her work “pretty mind-blowing.”
Shah Bibi, he said, not only handles a brush well but has an impressive grasp of matching colours.
“She kind of has a facility for it if she wants to pursue it,” added the artist whose own work is the subject of a large exhibition on display at Galerie Michael.
Shah Bibi will return to her family in Afghanistan next week, but Children of War plans to bring her back next year to fit her with a prosthetic eye and attend to her scars.
