American doctor McKay McKinnon once again succeeded in removing a large-sized tumor from the face of Kieu Thi My Dung, a 23-year-old patient at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh Friday evening during an 8-hour operation.
Diagnosed as having neurofibromatosis, a progressive disorder of the nervous system that causes disfiguring tumors to form on nerves throughout the body, Dung has been carrying the 1.5 kilogram tumor on her right face for years.

Led by the American plastic surgeon, the operation which lasted 8 hours had a team of 20 local doctors and nurses from Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City

After removing the tumor, the team used a part of the patient’s skull bone to recreate her right eye socket which was seriously damaged by the tumor.

They also repositioned her right cheekbone into a more symmetrical position with her left one and recreated her right eye’s ciliary muscle.

Dung’s is considered one of the hard cases, Tran Quyet Tien, deputy head of the hospital said, as a large number of nerves concentrate on her face.

The tumor’s position also makes it a challenge for the team as they both had to take out the tumor and preserve her facial functions and her appearance.

Doctor Tien said overall the surgery was a big success.

Dung’s mother was thrilled with happiness after hearing the result while her dad, Kieu Dung recalled she was born with a small tumor on her face which had kept growing bigger through time.

When she was as young as 3 months old, he had brought her to many large medical centers in Ho Chi Minh City but they all said they could not treat her disease.

After Dung, Dr. McKinnon will move on to treat tumor patient Thach Thi Sa Ly on Saturday (today) also at Cho Ray Hospital.

Sa Ly, 35, from the southern province of Soc Trang, suffers from a strange skin disease which has resulted in thousands of tumors covering her body from head to toe.

The tumors are of different sizes, with some as big as lemons or oranges. Ly can hardly see, as her eyes are also covered with these carbuncles.

She has been living in pain for over 20 years and cannot walk, so Ly has had to depend on her 60-year-old mother, Thach Sa Phai, for her daily activities.

On Thursday Doctor McKinnon successfully removed an 82 kilogram tumor from 32-year-old Nguyen Duy Hai in a massive operation that lasted nearly 12 hours that he led with a team of local doctors and nurses of the France – Vietnam (FV) Hospital, also in Ho Chi Minh City.

Hai has been bed-ridden for years because of the huge size of the tumor. He is now closely monitored at FV Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.

Tuoitre