26924: Hermantin(news)Haitian teen's first surgery a success (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

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.