Long Island Girl Faces School With New Confidence, Thanks to Plastic Surgery to Remove Disfiguring Tumor From Her Cheek
09/11/2006
Surgical Team at Schneider Children’s Hospital Donates Services
Like many second-graders, seven-year-old Romina Vasquez was a little nervous about starting school this year. But this was not an ordinary case of back-to-school jitters. Over the summer, the pretty, dark-haired girl from Oyster Bay had surgery to remove a congenital tumor from her face and she was worried about her classmates’ questions.
Thanks to Andrew Jacono, MD, a community-based reconstructive and facial plastic surgeon with the North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System who performed the surgery, Romina is feeling more self-confident.
Romina is all smiles at a recent check up with Dr. Jacono.
“Although Romina’s condition did not present any functional disturbances, facial disfigurement has psychological and social impacts, especially in the case of a child,” said Dr. Jacono. “The surgery restored normal facial contours so her right cheek now looks like the left.”
This summer, Dr. Jacono and a surgical team at Schneider Children’s Hospital donated their time and services to perform a two-part surgery to remove the disfiguring blood vessel tumor, or hemangioma, on her right cheek and eyelid. After Dr. Jacono removed the tumor, which was twice the size of a golf ball, he performed a flap reconstructive surgery to remove the residual portion of the hemangioma and excessive skin. The incision lines were hidden in the natural grooves around the eyes and cheek, using plastic surgical sutures.
Although Romina’s parents have health coverage, the insurance company considered the procedure purely cosmetic and her family could not afford the $10,000 surgery.
“Romina is a beautiful and good girl. All I ever wanted was for her to feel and look like other kids and not be discriminated against because of her face,” said Monica Vasquez, Romina’s mother. “We are very grateful to Dr. Jacono and everyone at the hospital for helping us.”
When Romina was born she had no marks on her face. After two days, a red dot appeared on her cheek. It began to grow larger each day. Her doctors diagnosed Romina with a hemangioma and they said it would get smaller over time but it didn’t recede.
When Romina was four, her parents took her for four laser treatments to remove the deep purple color from the tumor. Although the procedure made the growth less noticeable, children still teased Romina about her face and asked a lot of questions.
While hemangiomas are common at birth, Dr. Jacono said that one in 2,000 children will develop a deep tumor of the face that will grow excessively and not recede, a condition that could only be repaired by surgery.
“It’s a great joy to help boost a young girl’s self-esteem,” said Dr. Jacono. “You can see how happy Romina is when she walks into a room now. We have given her the ability not to constantly think about her face. If she can function as if her condition never existed, then we have all done our jobs.”