Youngster was a ‘prisoner in her own body’ and was struggling to eat and breathe before undergoing life-saving operation
A 12-YEAR-OLD girl forced to wear a scarf around her face to hide a tumour the size of a cantaloupe is smiling for the first time after surgeons successfully removed it.
Janet Sylva, from Gambia, is ecstatic after doctors removed the six-pound benign tumour in New York.
The youngster is expected to return home from the US next week following the successful removal of one of the largest tumours attending doctors had ever seen.
It had prevented Janet from eating, and breathing had become so difficult doctors feared she would die within a year if nothing was done.
Speaking on the case, Staten Island surgeon Dr David Hoffman said: “It made her a prisoner in her own body.”
The medic became aware of Janet’s plight last year, after local doctors in the neighbouring nation of Senegal reached out to international health groups in a desperate bid for help.
By this stage, Janet had stopped attending school, and wore a scarf around her face to conceal the tumour whenever she left the house.
Eager to help, Hoffman went on to coordinate with the Global Medical Relief Fund with a team of volunteer surgeons and other medical staff at Cohen Children’s Medical Centre in New Hyde Park on Long Island.
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Together, they performed the painstaking surgery on Janet for free in January.
Leading the operation, Dr Armen Kasabian, chief of plastic surgery at North Shore University Hospital, not only removed the tumour, but also rebuilt part of Janet’s jaw using a bone from her leg.
Reflecting on the landmark operation, Kasabian said the team knew they had to get the surgery perfect the first time around because Janet and her mother Philomena could only be in the US for a short period of time.
He said: “We don’t have the luxury of operating on her 10 times.
“We have to try and get the most that we can out of just one operation.”
[The tumour] made her a prisoner in her own body
Dr David Hoffman
Dr Kasabian and Dr Hoffman built models of Janet’s mouth using 3D imaging to practice the procedure before the 12-hour surgery on January 16.
Both medics said the tumour wouldn’t have reached such a size if Janet had lived in the US.
Kasabian said. “It would never get to this.
“This grew over the course of three years, and she had no one to take care of it there.
“Here, it would have been treated when it was smaller and more manageable.”
The Global Medical Relief Fund arranged transportation, housing and travel visas for Janet and her mum during their stay.
Speaking with the help of an interpreter, the overjoyed mum and daughter thanked the doctors who saved Janet’s life.
In her native language of Wolof, mum Philomena said: “I’m very happy and grateful because I have my daughter back.”
Meanwhile, Janet said the scarf she had been dependent on to hide her face had been thrown away for good.
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