Surgeons remove rare facial tumor

Melyssa Delgado Braga, a 3-yearold patient from São Paulo, Brazil, is recovering from surgery to remove a large, rare facial tumor. The child’s journey to the United States for treatment was made possible through a post on a Brazilian news site that native Brazilian Celso Palmieri, DDS, noticed while reviewing online publications of his home country.

Dr. Palmieri, assistant professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at LSU Health Shreveport, noted a plea from the child’s family, seeking help to get their daughter to the United States for treatment. He contacted his colleague and department chairman, G. E. Ghali, DDS, MD, FACS, who indicated that he believed he could help the child.

Dr. Ghali next approached Willis- Knighton Health System President James K. Elrod to seek support for the effort from Willis-Knighton. As Willis- Knighton has done in previous cases involving international patients and rare surgeries, the health system agreed to provide housing for the family and underwrite the cost of the hospital stay.

Reaching the child’s family through social media, Dr. Palmieri shared the good news.

Melyssa’s parents had already been raising funds for travel to the U.S. Within a month of Dr. Palmieri’s reading the notice, the child was in Shreveport preparing for the surgery.

The initial surgery, performed on Dec. 20, took more than 10 hours and was termed a success. Dr. Ghali and other surgeons involved have donated their services. The transformation in the child’s appearance is remarkable (photos courtesy of the Braga family).

Additional surgeries will be required as the child grows older.