David was burned at one year old and waited ten years for surgery
His grandmother did look for help. What she was offered was ointment.
The barrier is rarely a refusal. More often it is that surgical care was never on offer in the first place.
Boiling water, and a family that looked for help
David was a year old when he was scalded. His grandmother took him for treatment, as most families do. She came away with ointment, because ointment was what was available.
Reconstructive surgery for burn contractures requires an operating room, a trained surgeon, anaesthesia and follow-up rehabilitation. Where those do not exist together, a burn becomes permanent by default.
A decade later, in Madagascar
David was eleven when he was assessed by a Mercy Ships surgical team. Releasing the contracted scar tissue restored movement he had never had as a schoolboy.
The crew nicknamed him the little doctor, because he spent his time on the ward watching the medical staff work.