SYDNEY, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Australian surgeons have removed a disfiguring growth the size of a coconut from the face of a 7-year- old Filipino boy in breakthrough operation, local media reported on Thursday.
Jhonny Lameon had a severe neural tube problem that resulted in a membranous sac expanding through his eyes and covering his face, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) revealed.
A team of four surgeons at Melbourne's Monash Children's Hospital performed a seven-hour operation to remove the mass and reconstruct Jhonny's entire face in March.
Monash Children's Hospital plastic surgeon James Leong said it was an urgently needed procedure.
"Someone sent me a message on email with photos and the story of Jhonny with this terrible defect and straight away we really wanted to help him," Leong told ABC radio.
"So straight away we mobilized all of our resources to bring Jhonny from the Philippines to Melbourne."
Leong said the condition was quite rare, with about one in 10, 000 babies born with the defect.
"Most of these defects are done very early and they're picked up antenatally on ultrasound, but in Jhonny's case he lives in a very poor environment and he's nearly 7."
Leong said the surgery had to be done in Australia.
"They don't have the facilities where he comes from... which is the southern part of the Philippines," he said.
"He required neurosurgery and plastic surgery and an intensive care unit and all sorts of different imaging, so it had to be done here."
A team from not-for-profit organization Interplast Australia and New Zealand, which provides free reconstructive surgery for people across the Asia Pacific region, assessed Jhonny while on a visit to the Philippines. It decided the complex procedure needed to be performed in Australia and the pro-bono surgery, which involved generous volunteer surgical, theater, nursing and hospital staff, was organized.
The Children First Foundation then organized to get him to Australia, including visas, passports and flights for Jhonny and his mother.
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