Girl's Surgery A Success

A Haitian girl gave a thumbs up to doctors a day after they finished removing much of a 16-pound tumor-like mass that had engulfed her face. Doctors at Jackson Memorial Medical Center in Miami called the 17-hour procedure a success. They said it went so well they were able to remove the growth from both sides of 14-year-old Marlie Casseus' face, rather than just one side as planned.Marlie Casseus: Before the Tumor / And with the TumorMarlie was breathing on her own and was in stable condition at the center's Holtz Children's Hospital, said Dr. Jesus Gomez of the University of Miami School of Medicine, one of the surgeons involved in the operation. "She's doing extremely well. She's healing according to plan. She's extremely happy. We're extremely excited," an exhausted Gomez told reporters. Gomez said doctors are still concerned about the risk of infection. He called Marlie a brave girl. "I asked her in my broken Creole, `Marlie, if you're OK, give me thumbs up,' and she raised her thumb up," he said. Casseus suffers from a rare form of polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, a nonhereditary, genetic disease that causes bone to become swollen and jelly-like. Doctors said the pressure of the growth on her eye socket would have caused her to go blind if they hadn't operated.