Qld: Surgery gives Vietnamese teenager a new lease of life

00-00-0000
Qld: Surgery gives Vietnamese teenager a new lease of life

By Rosemary Desmond

BRISBANE, Dec 17 AAP - A Vietnamese teenager is preparing to return home after Australiansurgeons removed a large facial tumour which could have killed him.

Minh Thien Nguyen's condition was so bad, the tumour was joined to his brain throughhis eye socket, covering the right side of his face.

Mr Nguyen was born with the condition facial orbital neurofibromatosis, made famousby John Merrick, the so-called "Elephant Man", a 19th century Englishman forced to earnhis living as a circus sideshow freak.

On October 5 surgeons operated on the 19-year-old, removing the growth which wouldhave threatened his life if it had turned cancerous.

Cranio-facial plastic surgeon Dr Michael Lanigan said the 14-hour operation had involveda team of surgeons.

They removed the tumour from Mr Nguyen's face and around his brain, realigned his deformedfacial bones and took muscle and skin from his back, grafting them onto his face.

The surgery and post-operative recovery had gone according to plan and he was readyto return tomorrow to his family in Ho Chi Minh City.

"He's made a good recovery," Dr Lanigan said.

"He certainly doesn't look normal but he looks as normal as we can make him."

But he would otherwise be able to lead a normal life, helping his father raise a fewpigs and his mother with her market stall.

"The reconstruction is perfectly stable," Dr Lanigan said.

"He could play football if he wanted to without doing any damage to himself."

Cranio-facial deformities were often hereditary and occurred more frequently in south-eastAsia than in Australia, Dr Lanigan said.

Neurofibromatosis caused fibrous growths to appear all over the body and usually killedits victims before puberty.

"We don't see them quite as bad as this," Dr Lanigan said.

"If we have them in our own country we deal with them before his age group becauseit is a progressive condition."

The tumour would have prematurely shortened Mr Nguyen's life if it had turned malignant,Dr Lanigan said.

Rotary Overseas Aid for Children (ROMAC) care co-ordinator Elaine Morgan said suchcases were beyond the resources of many countries to deal with.

Mr Nguyen's case had come to the notice of Australian surgeons after his father hadseen a story about ROMAC on television in Ho Chi Minh City.

"He took it upon himself to write to us," Mrs Morgan said.

"That's how desperate he was."

A number of medical tests later Mr Nguyen came to Australia, staying with the helpof the Vietnamese community at the Linh-Son Buddhist Temple at Darra, west of Brisbane,during his recovery.

AAP rad/jhm/mg/bwl-

KEYWORD: NGUYEN (PIX AVAILABLE) (REPEATING)