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Christmas miracle: brain tumor removed Nigerian girl recovering rapidly
A Nigerian girl who travelled with her mother for over 6,000 miles to have her rare brain tumor removed, is rapidly recovering.
13 year old Faridah, daughter of Mariam Ameh's took the surgery to remove a grape sized brain tumor, the largest the operating surgeons had seen, at the Rainbow Babies & Childrens hospital, in Cleveland.
The tumor occupied over half the right brain of Faridah, and caused her arm to shake oddly whenever she held it out. The condition reached critical point when a month back, she had to drag her left leg as she walked. Mariam was informed by Nigerian doctors that the tumor in her daughters' brain was blocking major brain arteries and was life-threatening.
Her case caught the attention of Tami Shobe who had founded an organization which helped sick children find the right doctors and then flew them to the US for treatment. Usually these plans take months, but Waynesfield, Ohio's resident Shobe immediately got a plan working to bring Faridah to America.
Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital Doctor, Dr. Al Cohen, informed that Faridah had just a few weeks more to live before her 12 hour long brain surgery. Just before the surgery to remove the benign tumour, Faridah had already begun sticking out her tongue and wiggling her toes.
Cohen had operated for free on Faridah.
In a strange twist of fate as the Amehs worked to get the visa formalities completed, Faridah's 71 classmates died in a plane crash while they were returning home from a holiday on Dec.10. These Loyola Jesuit College of Abuja, Nigeria, students had got together to raise money for Faridah's treatment.
Feridah, meanwhile is surrounded by numerous get-well soon cards and letters from friends, mostly from this killed group of people, making them priceless.
Talking about her experiences in the US, Mariam said it showed her the meaning of generosity saying, “That is the joy of Christmas.”
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Written
by :
Paco Tyee | Published on :
03:33:01
EST
Thu, 29 Dec 2005 |
Something
to say »
» Mom
My son was diagnosed with a rare type of brain tumor in Feb of 05. He was in kinder and just 5 years old. It was devestating. We were told to travel to Driscoll childrens hospital in corpus christi, texas the next day. my son went under 2 operations to get a tumor removed. it was on his brain stem but was off to the left a bit. the 2nd operation removed almost all of it except for a b.b size portion of it. he came out of his 2nd operation unable to walk, talk, feed himself. it has not been a year and 5 months. he completed 1st grade and is now ready for 2nd grade and is now 7 years old. he is getting better but still loses his balance when he falls. Sometimes i wonder if we made the right choice with our doctor. But when you get the news like this, you don't have much time. They said he should have been walking into walls and falling when we found this out. It is amazing he survived. Thanks,Beverly
Commented by ( Beverly ) on 13:23:30 EST Fri, 28 Jul 2006
» CMM West
Children's Medical Missions West is the Organization that brought Faridah here! Tami is my mother and she has an amazing heart for God's children and her own!
Commented by ( Chandra ) on 16:04:01 EST Thu, 05 Jan 2006
» We love you Faridah
I thank God that the surgery was successful. Faridah is a wonderful girl. As her math teacher in JS2, I found Faridah a wonderful person to be with. We thank all who contributed to the success of this operation. We look forward to having her back in our midst soonest. We love you Faridah. From Brother Agbo, SJ.
Commented by ( Brother Aloysius Agbo, SJ ) on 15:59:53 EST Mon, 02 Jan 2006
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