Moises’ Story

We treated Moises as a 36 year old man who had a tumor removed from his cheek 5 years prior. Unfortunately, the tumor recurred and grew continuously. He had no pathology report and no imaging except for a plain Xray. A donation was made for a CT scan and so we were able to have imaging done, but they didn’t use contrast (which would have told us the vascular nature of the tumor, and whether it would be more dangerous to remove). The thought was that this was a recurrent parotid adenoma. We spoke to Moises and his family that we would attempt to remove the tumor, but may have to stop if it looked too dangerous. Fortunately, the tumor was removed in addition to being able to preserve function of his facial nerve. Postop photos are 3 days after surgery. Moises was able to smile, which showed that his nerve was working just fine! About a month later, we received a pathology report from Quito that the lesion was a parotid adenoma (benign) and that we are able to completely remove it. We spoke to radiation specialists in Hartford, who made recommendations about a regimen of radiation that he should undergo in order to reduce the risk of recurrence.

A further wonderful part of his story is that pre-op, Moises wanted to leave the hospital immediately after surgery because his wife was pregnant and due with their baby. We told him that he had to stay overnight, in case he bled; he reluctantly stayed. He left the hospital early the next morning, after we cleared him. His wife had gone into labor at another hospital the same day that we were operating on him and delivered a healthy baby girl! Look at this wonderful photo of him, dressing still on and drain in place, holding his newborn daughter. That child will never know her dad with that horrific tumor. 3 hours of time and a life changed!