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.