In an earlier snapshot, from the June, l967 Newsletter, we read Dr. Butler's account of a little girl who had been scalped. In the September, l968 issue, Ray Comstock offers an update:
Many of our readers will remember little Manuelita, the Chamula Indian girl who came to our hospital over a year ago. She had been completely scalped when her long, black hair got caught in the fan belt of an engine. At the hospital they took hundreds of pinches of skin from her thigh and put them on her weeping, draining head. Some of the grafts took, but others sloughed off. The process was repeated many times until finally, last month, her head was all nicely covered with skin.
Manuelita suffered much pain during all this, but she would say, "Un poco" (a little) if you asked her if it hurt.
The members of the Alabaster Club of La Sierra, California are getting Manuelita a wig so that she will feel more normal again.
Now Manuelita has applied for permission to come to Yerba Buena as an industrial student. She will probably be coming up in October. At present she lacks the necessary 3,400 pesos or 280 dollars.