A fifteen-year-old Vietnamese girl has a 16-pound facial tumor which threatens to suffocate her. Now she is in Miami, waiting for surgery to remove the tumor and to restore her ability to eat and speak. Doctors at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center will remove it in a 10-hour laborious surgery.

The little girl suffers from a Schwannoma tumor that has been growing since she was three, as the medical report showed. She has never attended school since her face has been almost entirely disfigured.

This type of tumor, also called neurilemoma, is a bening tumor that can arise from any nerve in the body although it is usually common to certain nerves located in the head and neck. It is made up of Schwann cells that grow abnormally. The causes of this type of tumors are unknown. They usually occur in patients with von Recklinghausen disease (neurofibromatosis). The treatment of Schwannoma depends on the child’s age, his overall health, the extent of the disease, the child’s tolerance for specific procedures, or therapies, the physician’s advice.

Her family put all their hopes in the surgery which is scheduled on April 29. The surgery’s procedure consists in separating the membrane than covers the nerve from the nerve, without any disturbance to the nerve’s function. Fortunately, after the surgery which will separate and remove the affected tissue, the tumor should not recur.