Photo courtesy of ABC7 News.
A six-year-old girl from Ethiopia named Negalem had a cantaloupe-sized tumor removed from her face in New York City on June 23. Dr. Teresa O and Dr. Milton Waner performed the life-saving surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital.
Negalem had the lethal facial tumor since birth, and the tumor grew with her. The tumor, called a vascular malformation, could have ruptured and killed the little girl. It would also have kept growing and eventually kept little Negalem from swallowing, causing her to die from starvation or suffocation.
The surgery itself was complicated and dangerous. The surgeons had to remove the growth without damaging vital blood vessels carefully. They also had to cut around muscles and nerves.
The husband and wife surgeon team was happy to help Negalem. A government official who met Negalem in Ethiopia found the talented surgeons after a year-long search. The duo specializes in complex pediatric vascular malformations.
“This is why I became a doctor,” said Dr. Waner. “Clearly, we help people every day, but this was on such a grand scale. Prior to surgery, we were extremely nervous about this, wondering how we would get around this,” Dr. Waner said. “This is no walk in the park.”
His wife, Dr. Teresa O, added that everything went smoothly during the surgery, and they successfully removed the tumor.
The surgery took twelve hours, and most of the large mass was removed. Doctors said that the swelling would continue to go down over several months.
Before the surgery, Negalem was shy about her appearance and refused to go outside. After the surgery, the adorable little girl was still a bit bashful in front of the cameras, but she managed to show her new smile and said “Thank You” to the surgeons.
Negalem will go home with her parents on July 14, but she will soon return to the United States to have the rest of the mass removed from under her tongue. Lenox Hill and Northwell Health paid all expenses related to the surgery.