A Russian 8-year old boy is awaiting a life-saving operation in the United States that may help him recover from a brutal assault, an American health official said Tuesday.


The boy, who was raped and fiercely mutilated by a man in St. Petersburg late last month, arrived Monday at the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


"The boy is doing well," said Shannon Farley, marketing director for the American Medical Center in St. Petersburg which provided emergency intravenous feeding for the boy and assisted in flying him to Pittsburgh. "He does not remember much about what happened to him."


But she said he would have to wait three to six months for his wounds to heal before he could receive a complex small bowel transplant. Farley said the operation had been performed successfully only a few times and only in the United States, but she added that he would have to remain permanently on intravenous feeding unless part of his intestines was replaced.


The boy's family appealed to the American Medical Center when Russian doctors, after a successful initial operation, found that his wounds were so severe they could not feed him intravenously, Farley said.


Joining in to help the boy, whose case was well publicized because the boy's father lives in Pittsburgh, Finnair provided free transport, the U.S. consulate provided visas for the family and two Russian doctors in one day, and a U.S. candy firm transported him to the hospital by Learjet, Farley said.


Police in St. Petersburg have arrested a man who they say fits the boy's description of his attacker.