There is a young Haitian girl in Marbial whose life is about the change dramatically. The girl, about 13 years old, has a large congenital tumor on her face, a deformity she has probably had since birth. She is slated to be one of the first patients in line for surgery when Bridgeport Hospital surgeons set up camp in a hospital in Jacmel. Richard Garvey met the girl last year on St. Mary’s reconnaissance trip to Marbial and indentified her as a candidate for surgery.

The girl’s procedure is being led by Mark Bianchi, chief of otolaryngology at Bridgeport Hospital, with support from Garvey and certified nurse anesthetist Franz Paul. As an otolaryngologist, Bianchi specializes in ear, nose and throat disorders and surgeries of the head and neck. He says her case is a tricky one because during surgery he has to be careful not to harm the facial nerve or risk facial paralysis for the girl (pictured at left/photo by Garvey).

“The surgery is very meticulous and somewhat longer than it normally would be,” Bianchi said. “It could be very dramatic.”

The goal of the surgery is two-fold: to improve the girl’s quality of life by removing the disfiguring growth and preventing possible complications down the road for her. Bianchi said such tumors have a higher rate of turning into cancerous tumors.

The surgical team in Jacmel will face a wide range of problems and will have to make difficult decisions about who they can treat and who they cannot treat. Certain complex surgeries that require follow-up more than a week later might not be able to happen because the medical team will not be around long enough to ensure the proper follow-up. It is not yet known if the team will see many people with wounds left over from the earthquake. What is almost certain is there will be no shortage of people in need of help from the surgical team.