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Doctors: Surgery on girl's face a success
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-18 08:48
MIAMI - A Haitian girl gave a thumbs up to doctors a day after they finished
removing much of a 16-pound tumor-like mass that had engulfed her face.
Maxillofacial
surgeon Jesus Gomez of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine,
explains the surgical procedure performed on Marlie Casseus during a news
conference Friday, Dec. 16, 2005, in Miami. The photo on the right, shows
Marlie after the operation. The 14-year-old Haitian girl underwent the
rare operation Wednesday to remove much of a 16-pound tumor-like growth on
her face that all but obliterated her features.
[AP] |
Doctors at Jackson Memorial Medical Center in Miami called the 17-hour
procedure a success. It went so well they were able to remove the growth from
both sides of 14-year-old Marlie Casseus' face, rather than just one side as
planned, the doctors said Friday.
Marlie was breathing on her own and was in stable condition at the center's
Holtz Children's Hospital, said Dr. Jesus Gomez of the University of Miami
School of Medicine, one of the surgeons involved in the operation.
"She's doing extremely well. She's healing according to plan. She's extremely
happy. We're extremely excited," an exhausted Gomez told reporters.
Gomez said doctors are still concerned about the risk of infection. He called
Marlie a brave girl.
"I asked her in my broken Creole, 'Marlie if you're OK, give me thumbs up,'
and she raised her thumb up," he said.
Casseus suffers from a rare form of polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, a
nonhereditary, genetic disease that causes bone to become swollen and
jelly-like. Doctors said the pressure of the growth on her eye socket would have
caused her to go blind if they hadn't operated.
The Haitian nonprofit Good Samaritan helped bring Casseus to the U.S. in
September after the painful growth became so big it began to crush her breathing
passage. The doctors are donating their time.
Marlie's mother, Maleine Antoine, thanked doctors and all those who donated
funds to help pay for the operation.
"I hope that she has a life and will be happy like any normal teen girl. She
has suffered so much," Antoine said through an interpreter.
During the operation that began Wednesday morning, doctors inserted metal
plates to reconstruct Marlie's lower eye-sockets after the mass of jelly and
bone was removed. Doctors also reconstructed the interior of her nose, which had
been all but destroyed by the disease.
Gomez said they hoped to operate on her jaw, which has swelled to nearly
double its normal size, in about two months. Further reconstructive surgeries
will follow.
Already photos of the girl before and after showed a stark difference. The
bulbous mass that made her look as if her face had been stretched over an
eggplant was gone.
Gomez said Marlie will be able to breathe through her nose but is unlikely to
have a sense of smell or taste.
Only about 3 percent of the 150,000 people diagnosed with the disease
worldwide suffer such an extreme condition, Gomez said.
Back home in Port-au-Prince, Casseus was rejected by her neighbors, who would
cross the street when she walked by.
The hospital's International Kids Fund, which seeks to provide medical care
to needy children from around the world, said donations for Marlie's operation
had come from as far as Iceland and Hong Kong. The fund said it is seeking more
money for Marlie's continued care.
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