Moving forward: Kechi Okwuchi has already
defied the odds to survive a plane crash and make it to the finals
of America’s Got Talent, wowing the nation with her voice. But off
stage she’s still been battling pain in her neck, arms and face.
Now reconstructive surgeons are helping her move ahead. Pictured:
Kechi after her first set of surgeries to make her cheeks
symmetrical, allow her to straighten her arms, turn her neck, and
close her left eye
A gifted singer and burns victim who
captured the nation’s hearts on America’s Got Talent[1] has undergone
life-changing surgery.
Kechi Okwuchi, 29, from Nigeria[2], was just 16 when a
plane flying her and 60 schoolmates from the capital Abuja to the
southern city of Port Harcourt crashed at its destination.
Of the 109 passengers on Sosoliso
Airlines Flight 1145, seven were recovered from the wreckage but
only two survived. Kechi was one of them, suffering third-degree
burns on 65 percent of her body.
She underwent more than 100 surgeries
to restore her speech, movement, sight, and independence.
Music got her through – and pushed
her into the limelight last year, when she stunned the audience and
judges of America’s Got Talent with a rendition of Ed Sheeran’s
Thinking Out Loud.
But behind the camera, Kechi
still endured excruciating pain – both physical and psychological.
One eye has never closed completely since the crash, one ear
doesn’t have a lobe, she can’t straighten her arms fully. Her
neck is the thing that affects her the most: she cannot fully turn
her head to the right, and the tightness restricts how she can
react, perform and move day-to-day.
Now, DailyMail.com can exclusively
reveal that a year after Kechi made it to the final of AGT 2017,
the TV show Extra [3]has connected her with
world-class surgeons to finally help her through the lingering
injuries.
‘I’m just so grateful,’ Kechi says on
the show, adding: ‘Amazing things have happened in my life.’
KECHI’S JOURNEY: HOW
SHE FOUGHT BACK FROM THE HOSPITAL BED TO THE GLOBAL
STAGE
The last thing Kechi can remember
from the crash on 22 October, 2005, is a scratchy metal sound as
they headed towards the ground.
Then she blacked out.
Kechi was airlifted to Johannesburg,
South Africa, where doctors stabilized her.
Two years later, her case was
accepted by doctors at Shriners Hospitals for Children in
Galveston, Texas.
In total, she underwent nearly 100
surgeries.
She’d been singing since she was a
little girl, but music took on new meaning during her recovery, as
her mother would play her favorite songs while she was in a
coma.
Kechi was just 16 when a plane flying her
and 60 schoolmates from the capital Abuja to the southern city of
Port Harcourt crashed at its destination. She underwent more than
100 surgeries to restore her speech, movement, and sight. Pictured:
Kechi before the crash (left) and 12 years after (right) performing
on America’s Got Talent
In 2015, Kechi graduated from the
University of Saint Thomas in Texas, where she majored in
economics, and inspired the hall as student speaker.
She received such a powerful reaction
that she was invited to give a Ted Talk[4] in London, that
year, encouraging girls to be confident in themselves.
Then, she decided to try to realize
her dream to be a singer.
The audience was left weeping on
their feet during Kechi’s first performance, which the judges
described as both delicate and powerful. She made it to the
finale singing Conqueror by Estelle, to which Simon Cowell reacted:
‘That wasn’t a song, that was an anthem.’
Extra, which screens today in a
special Thanksgiving episode, brought together a team of doctors,
including Beverly Hills facial, plastic and reconstructive
surgeon Dr Andrew Frankel.
‘I felt that someone like that
deserves an opportunity to have a good feeling about herself,’ Dr
Frankel said.
Working with his associate Dr Demetre
Arnaoutkis, Dr Frankel first restored basic function in Kechi’s
face and neck.
The first surgery took more than four
hours.
Extra, which screens today in a special
Thanksgiving episode, brought together a team of doctors, including
Beverly Hills facial, plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Andrew
Frankel
Next, he fixed her eyelids so she
could close her eyes, and made her cheeks symmetrical.
Most importantly for Kechi, she can
now turn her neck – which she demonstrates gleefully in a selfie
video played in the episode (adding humbly that ‘this may not seem
important to anyone else’).
For her arms, Kechi went to Dr Peter
Grossman at the Grossman Burn Center in West Hills, California.
Most importantly for Kechi, she can now
turn her neck to the right (pictured before surgery)
Using her arm was a struggle because she
always felt pulling and tightness on stage
Working with his associate Dr Demetre
Arnaoutkis, Dr Frankel (pictured) first restored basic function in
Kechi’s face and neck
‘Using her arm, it’s a struggle for
her, because she always feels that pulling and that tightness,’ Dr
Grossman said
‘We’re going to release some of those
tight areas to give her that range of motion that’s greater than
she has now.
‘That’s the game plan for the first
set of operations for Kechi.’
It’s a process that will take months,
if not years.
But Kechi says she is already feeling
a huge difference.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR KECHI:
AGT THE CHAMPIONS
Kechi pictured after her first set of
surgeries
Simon Cowell has asked Kechi back to
compete in a select group of finalists from previous years for AGT:
The Champions, which premieres on January 7 on NBC.
Kechi said she cannot believe how her
life has turned around since that fateful day in 2005 when she
narrowly survived.
Speaking at the end of the episode,
she said she owes it all to Simon Cowell, who was the judge that
took Kechi and propelled her to stardom.
In a selfie video she thanks Simon
‘for everything that has happened in my life since I appeared on
your show America’s Got Talent.’
‘Because of the exposure that I got
on that platform,’ she says, ‘amazing things have happened in my
life.’
‘So I just want to tell you: thank
you so much for everything you do for people like me, and I’m just
so grateful that Extra saw me through your show and did all this
for me as well.’
But Simon insists it should be the
other way around.
‘It’s what she did for us, if I’m
being honest with you,’ Simon said.
‘When you don’t have contestants like
that, you have no show.’