Mother refuses to raise disabled daughter, says 'she's too ugly'

An attractive mother has abandoned her disabled daughter and is refusing to raise her unless the girl receives free plastic surgery because she is 'ugly'.

Read: Absent father gets the 'bashing' of his life after he tries to contact son

The girl, identified only as Katya, was born physically and mentally disabled and doctors in Azov, in Russia's Rostov Oblast region, did not believe she would live more than a few days.

Her mother, Nadezhda, had been told about the condition after giving birth.

With three sons already at home to care for, and being a single mother, she simply left the child at the hospital. She said: '"ive in a small village, and I have to think about what the neighbours will say. I am a single mother who raised other children on my own, and I can't afford plastic surgery.

"If they manage to make her look better, I will be happy to take her to live with me. But I couldn't bear to have her here and hear people talking about and calling her "ugly face"."

Nadezhda claimed she assumed her baby girl had died as medics had warned, and the first that she knew of the fact that Katya had survived was when she got a letter from the orphanage.

By then the child was already a teenager, and she was told that unless she would agree to take care of her, Katya faced being placed into an asylum when she turned 18.

When she visited the teenager, the mother said she was shocked at how ugly she was, but felt that she wanted to care for her rather than leave her to rot in an asylum.

Bizarrely, she has come up with a condition for the re-adoption.

She wants the girl to have plastic surgery to make her a little better-looking.

Social workers described Katya as a happy child, and very loving.

Kristina Isaeva, from the charity, 'Me Without A Mother', who is working together with the social workers, confirmed they were trying to find money to pay for an operation and were also hoping that maybe a plastic surgeon, possibly in Moscow, might agree to take on the case for a low price or even for free.

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She said: "We have contacted local plastic surgeons but nobody was prepared to take on the case for free."

See touching photos of Katya in Pulse gallery.