Face-off: Surgeons give 23-year-old new face by excising five-pound tumour

A total of 30 free plastic surgeries were performed.

KARACHI:

It took 23-year-old Farooq 16 years to dare and dream of the day that he would be able to see, as a five-pound tumour restricted him from using his right eye.

“We had consulted countless doctors and skin specialists,” said Farooq’s mother Zohra. “But they all said that it was impossible to remove the tumour without paralysing my son’s face.”

But as luck would have it, 18 months ago social worker Hasmat Effendi saw Farooq at Fortress Stadium in Lahore and approached him. “I saw this handsome young boy with a deformity that could be treated,” Effendi told The Express Tribune.

Effendi is the founder of House of Charity (HoC), an America-based organisation which offers free plastic surgeries to people with birth deformities or severe burns.

On November 22, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) in collaboration with the HoC, kicked off their free plastic surgery camp and workshop at the university’s Ojha campus. The camp is scheduled to conclude on Friday (today). A total of 30 surgeries were performed during this time. “Though 80 were registered initially, 30 people were a no-show and then some major surgeries took much longer than anticipated so we fell short on time,” said Dow International Medical College (DIMC) Principal Dr Muhammad Masroor. “The remaining 20 patients have been adjusted for the next session scheduled for March.”

Of all cases it was perhaps Farooq’s medical condition which struck the most interest in the surgical team as well as DIMC students, some of whom watched the surgery live on Tuesday.

Dr Joseph Agris, a surgeon from Texas with over 40 years of experience, led the team. “It was a once in a lifetime experience [to be able to watch this surgery live],” said DIMC fourth-year student Talha Baig. “It was a rare and difficult case, students have probably only seen such procedures on the Discovery Channel.” Originally from Chicago, Baig also scrubbed in on the five-hour procedure. “It was a vascular tumour so there was a lot of bleeding,” he said.

According to Baig, there was a point during the surgery when massive amounts of blood nearly covered the surgeon’s scrubs. “It was one of those nail-biting moments and I’m glad the surgery was successful,” he said.

Farooq’s condition, medically known as neurofibromatosis, led to the tumour covering nearly half of his face. “It was a complicated procedure,” said Agris. “The nerves for the lip and other facial movement are linked in this area, so a wrong cut and Farooq’s face could have been paralysed.”

Lying in the male ward at the National Institute of Liver and Gastrointestinal Diseases at DUHS a day after his surgery, Farooq said, “I had become used to it [tumour] but now I feel like a great load is off my face.”

Farooq’s parents first noticed a black spot right above his right eyebrow when he was eight days old but it disappeared soon after. Unfortunately, it reappeared when he was eight months old and from a small swelling it grew to a massive bump above his eye. His mother would have it to tape it up so he could see.”

Now, Farooq is lined up for round two in March. If all goes well he has pledged to work with the HoC and help others without hope and waiting for a miracle.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2011.