November 29, 2006: Girl's face disfigured by 16 pound tumor

[Undertoad]

Marlie Casseus was living a normal life in Haiti at age 3:



And then something went wrong. A tumor started growing on the inside of her face, and by age 14 she looked like the above.

This Chicago Trib story explains:

Her condition is a rare form of polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, a non-hereditary genetic disease that affects every bone in her body, though not to the severity with which it disfigured her face, Gomez said.

Marlie's mother, Maleine Antoine, said her daughter never spoke clearly, but she didn't worry until Marlie was 8 and she noticed two small bumps on either side of the girl's nose. Marlie also was beginning to complain that her mouth and throat hurt when she ate.

At school, Marlie mostly learned to hide behind walls and trees to avoid other children. Bus passengers backed away from her. She retreated home for good when she was 12 and no longer could speak.

One can only imagine what it was like for a teenager.

The International Kids Fund found her and brought her to Miami, where she is undergoing a series of surgeries to correct the situation. It takes a long time to go from a face full of 16-pound tumor, to a more normal look. But she's getting there.





After the fourth surgery.



Her mom is overjoyed. The operation not only makes her look better, but has saved her life. At her worst moments, she could barely eat or breathe, and Haitian docs didn't exactly understand the situation and had left her for dead. At lot of Haitians thought it was something satanic.

Here is her page at the International Kids Fund, and if you are sufficiently moved by the story, there is a donate link.

[jbolty]

I think I would have gotten that looked at when it got to about 5 lbs. But that's just me.

[maximum]

that first picture is maybe the craziest thing i have ever seen...

[CaliforniaMama]

Wow, just when we think we've made progress in educating the world, something like this comes up.

It isn't like Haiti is so far removed from modern society or anything.

I am always amazed at how deeply the superstitions still rule.

Amazing, though, that this poor girl can even be saved. I wonder what that has done to her spinal development, having all that extra weight in her head. I wonder if she misses that tumor, after all, it has been with her for a very long time.

[bbro]

Originally Posted by jbolty

I think I would have gotten that looked at when it got to about 5 lbs. But that's just me.

Haitian doctors could do nothing. With no advanced medical imaging in the impoverished Caribbean country, no one could see that the bumps weren't growing on the bone — the bumps were the bone ballooning and turning to jelly, riddled with pockets of liquid and air.

From here

You probably would have had the resources to have it checked at 5 pounds, she did not

[Dypok]

So they couldn't do anything? They just gave up after 5lbs? They couldn't take a polaroid or send a verbal description to the red cross? Thank God someone fixed this instead of shaking chicken bones at it.

[Elspode]

Jeez, how tragic. I do hope they can restore her face without her looking too horribly scarred.

[glatt]

Sounds like the "doctors" in Haiti didn't even consider giving her a tracheotomy to help with breathing. I know Haiti is backwards, but you'd think they could have at least done that.

Poor thing.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaMama

It isn't like Haiti is so far removed from modern society or anything.

Actually, it is. Haiti is a third world country just off our shores. It has suffered several unstable predatory dictatorships that benefitted the Duvalliers and made a poor people poorer. They don't have a tourism industry, which could help improve conditions from the influx of nice juicy dollars and euros, but the place is so dangerous that nobody wants to go there.

I haven't been myself, but I have a friend who makes a point of going every couple of years.

[glatt]

It's the only country I know of that still practices voodoo.

[laebedahs]

I used to work with a guy from Haiti (he was the maintenance guy for a McDonald's). He was very excitable, both in good and bad senses.

[lumberjim]

[Leah]

Wow that poor little girl, I wouldn't wish anything like that even on my worst enemy. I hope her spirits are as golden as can be. Dear little girl.

[Saknussem]

Educating the world? What the hell are you talking about? I have a good friend here at the law school I am attending. He WAS attending a Christian law school which shall remain nameless but is in California. CALI-FRIGGIN-FORNIA! He had a mild stroke which caused some temporary paralysis in the side of his face (no, NOT Bell's Palsy, a real stroke). The other students, LAW STUDENTS, were convinced that he had the DEVIL inside him, stopped going to the same classes he was attending, and demanded that the administration expel him. The school caved in to the students' wishes, my friend was expelled, and had to go to the CA Supreme Court to get his loans wiped.

I don't think we have done all that wonderful a job edumacating the idiots in OUR country. The sooner people grow up mentally and stop blaming diseases on such worthy causes as "We forgot to sacrifice a goat last night" or "The fields need some blood soon" the better. READ THE LOTTERY!!

Sorry. I hate superstitious assholes with nothing better to do than make other peoples' lives miserable because of their own ignorance.

Okay, stepping OFF the soapbox and getting back to the exciting topic of whether the conduct of an offeree will constitute assent under the circumstances if they are directed towards fulfilling the conractual obligation.

[DanaC]

Heh. We have recently acquired American-style evangelist groups in the UK. That isn't meant to be anti-American, simply an observation of their origin, as opposed to the more usual English style of Christianity. A friend of mine got very involved with one of these groups and I ended up going along as a witness to her baptism (see.....even a militant atheist makes exceptions for a friend) whilst there I was perturbed to see a group of them 'cure' someone's asthma by 'drawing out the devil' from within them.....through their mouth, in a vapour that all the Christians present claimed they could see. The devil. The devil as a cause of asthma.