[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
26924: Hermantin(news)Haitian teen's first surgery a success (fwd)
From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>
Posted on Sat, Dec. 17, 2005
MIAMI
Haitian teen's first surgery a success
The case of a Haitian teenager undergoing surgery for a mammoth facial growth
has drawn donations from as far away as Hong Kong and Latvia.
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
ebrecher@herald.com
The plan had been to remove only part of the huge growth distending Marlie
Casseus's upper face and leave the rest for future surgeries, but the operation
went so well that doctors just kept going.
By the time they'd tied off the last of about 2,500 stitches just minutes
before midnight Wednesday, surgeons had opened the 14-year-old Haitian girl's
face like a book and excised nine pounds of jelly-like fibrous tissue, bone
fragments, teeth and fluid.
With titanium mesh, they'd constructed a new framework for her facial features,
which, lacking the support the tumor gave, would have collapsed into an empty
cavity. They'd formed an upper lip, reduced the size of her overstretched mouth
by 70 percent and, finding her nasal septum intact, reopened her crushed
nostrils with plastic ''trumpets'' during the surgery at the University of
Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center's Holtz Children's Hospital.
''She's healing according to plan,'' maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Jesus Gomez said
Friday during a press briefing. ''She's extremely happy and responsive,'' he
said. ``This morning, with my broken Creole, I told her to give me thumbs up,
and she gave me one. She's a brave girl. . . From the surgical standpoint, we
consider this a success.''
BETTER VISION
And although she'll probably never be able to taste or smell, he said, Marlie
will finally be able to see clearly. Dr. Kami Parsa, a Bascom Palmer Eye
Institute surgeon on Marlie's medical team, said that pressure from the growth
hadn't permanently damaged her left optic nerve.
''That's really exciting to see,'' he said, predicting that ''her visual
potential is going to be great. For the brain to see perfectly, the eyes have
to be aligned,'' which the tumor prevented.
Marlie suffers from McCune-Albright syndrome: a genetic condition that includes
the uneven bone growth of polysostic fibrous dysplasia, and endocrine
abnormalities. It affects much of her bone structure, and could return to her
face, doctors cautioned.
As a very young girl, she appeared to be growing normally. By age 9, the mass
had so distorted her face that she quit school. By the time she came to Miami
10 weeks ago, she could barely breathe.
During Wednesday's surgery, doctors found teeth embedded in the mass near the
inner corners of her eyes.
MORE SURGERY NEEDED
Marlie, in intensive care, will continue to breathe and be fed through tubes
for about two months, when Gomez's team will remove the growth in her lower
jaw.
He predicted two subsequent procedures, ``to help her look a little more
normal.''
During the next procedure, doctors will remove the remaining growth -- about
seven pounds.
The doctors unveiled an ''after'' photo, showing a dramatic difference from
Marlie's pre-op profile.
Where her face had ballooned outward in a heavy lump from below the eyes to the
throat, it now lies flat down to the lower jaw, which remains distended.
Marlie's mother, Maleine Antoine, flanked by Gina and Ginette Eugene, the twin
Haitian-American sisters who brought Marlie's plight to the attention of the UM
doctors, said in Creole that when she saw her daughter in recovery, she was
stunned.
''I can't hide from you that I was in terrible shock . . . [but] what I saw
after the surgery was a lot of joy for me,'' she said.
``I know she will never be the same, but I'm so happy that the misery will
end.''
HOSPITAL FELLOWSHIP
Before the briefing ended, Antoine was joined by two U.S. Marines: Lance Cpl.
Lisa Bergeron, 19, and her husband, Cpl. Jesse Bergeron, 22, stationed at Camp
LeJeune, N.C.
They too are staying at the Ronald McDonald House on the UM/Jackson campus, as
their 6-month-old son, Skye Joseph, recovers from multiple-organ transplants.
They learned that Marlie loves Barbie dolls, and through the Marines' Toys for
Tots Christmas program, gave her Angel de las Fiestas Barbie; Barbie Magic
Pegasus, and Fairytopia Barbie.
''She was thrilled and started clapping,'' Jesse Bergeron said. ``We came here
today to bring her more toys and brighten up her day.''
The couple, the twins and Maleine Antoine then linked arms, faced the
television cameras, and sang, 'God Bless America.