Dr. McKinnon removes 2nd facial tumor in Vietnam

World-renowned plastic surgeon McKay McKinnon in collaboration with doctors at FV Hospital (FVH) in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday removed 95 percent of a massive tumor from the face of a 31-year-old Vietnamese man.

>> Man with large facial tumor waits for a miracle

The patient is Le Hoang Em hailing from the southern Dong Thap province.

This is the second facial tumor removed by the American doctor in two consecutive days at FVH. Just one day ago, the same surgery team removed a 0.5kg tumor from the face of 18-year-old girl Nguyen Hoang Thien An.

Dr. McKinnon, the lead surgeon, received great assistance in both cases from FVH’s medical team including Dr. Nguyen Quang Dai, head of the Otolaryngology Department, Dr. Phan Van Thai from the General Surgery Department, and Dr. Dao Thi My Van, head of Anaesthesia and ICU.

A complicated surgery

Dr. Dai told Tuoi Tre that the success rate of Em’s case is 90 percent but he is not sure about the reoccurrence of his tumor. He said the rest five percent of his tumor could not be removed because it is in “a very dangerous area”.

Em was sent to the operating room at 6:30am on July 31 and was anaesthetized for about 2 hours. The surgical team started operating on him at 8:20am.

Dr. Van said this is a complicated case since the risk associated with operations on the head, face, and neck is usually higher than on other body parts and the team had prepared 20 units of blood (5,000ml) for the operation on him.   

According to surgeon Phan Van Thai, who actively assisted Dr. McKinnon in removing the 90kg (200lb) tumor from the leg of Nguyen Duy Hai from Da Lat city in January, 2012, Em’s case is complicated because a large amount of blood was lost.

“Though Em’s case was not as life-threatening as Hai’s, we were more careful because we had to cut off a number of blood vessels in his face,” Dr. Thai said. 

The team tried to preserve the patient’s facial nerves to make sure he is able to close his eyes while sleeping because almost all working functions on his right face had been destroyed by the tumor. Dr. Dai said they used the skin from Em’s thigh to re-create his face.

Living with tumor for 30 years

One day before the surgery, Em told Tuoi Tre: “I cannot sleep because I am worried so much. But I do hope I will have my tumor removed so that I can get back my handsome face” he laughed out loud.

“But I’m really happy because the hospital requires no fee for the surgery”, he added.

Many individuals and organizations including VinaCapital Foundation and FVH have connected Dr. McKinnon to a number of Vietnamese tumor patients, leading to his third trip to Vietnam in three years. Dr. McKinnon had agreed to operate on Em and An at FVH along with other tens of tumor cases from north to south of the country.

Hoang Em before the surgery. Source: Tuoitrenews

When Em was born in a remote area in the Mekong Delta’s Dong Thap province 30 years ago, a small tumor that looked like a birthmark appeared on his right cheek. The family thought the small clump of tissue would soon disappear. Instead, it grew uncontrollably ever since.

He was the fourth son in a poor family with 5 children. His father, Le Van Cho, 58, and his mother Tran Thi Thu, 57, are hired laborers.

At the age of one, his parents took him to the Oncology Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, where he was treated with radiotherapy but the doctors failed to diagnose his condition. In 2005, when the tumor covered almost half of his face, Em and his mother decided to go to the Oncology Hospital again to see if a surgery could be the answer to his problem. But the hospital refused to admit him because the tumor was too big and the cost of the surgery too high for them to afford.

However, after that, doctors at Cho Ray Hospital in HCMC agreed to perform an operation on him. Dr. Luu Ba and his colleagues at Cho Ray later held a consultation and diagnosed Em with hemangioma, an abnormal buildup of blood vessels in the skin or internal organs.

In May, 2005, Em was admitted to Cho Ray Hospital for the surgery. Three months after the surgery, the scar healed but the tumor still increased in size, which gradually covered his entire right ear and disfigured part of his mouth, making it difficult for him to breathe and eat for years.