为14岁的海地女孩马莉·卡苏斯实施面部肿瘤切除手术的美国医生日前向人们透露了卡苏斯的术后恢复情况。医生表示，目前卡苏斯已经能够自主呼吸，且状态非常稳定。

    据美联社12月17日报道，美国迈阿密杰克逊纪念医疗中心的医生们表示，12月14日进行的那次长达16个多小时的手术很成功。他们说，手术过程进展得非常顺利，因而他们可以将卡苏斯面部两侧的肿瘤全部切除，而并非像先前计划的那样，只切除一侧的瘤体。

    参与此次手术的杰西·戈迈兹医生表示，7.7公斤重的巨大肿瘤被切除后，目前还在霍尔兹儿童医院住院的卡苏斯已经能够自主呼吸，而且她的身体状况非常稳定。目前，卡苏斯按照计划正在逐渐地恢复。手术的成功让卡苏斯感到非常高兴，医生们也很激动。戈迈兹说：“我用我蹩脚的克里奥尔语问她‘马莉，如果你感觉不错，请竖起大拇指示意。’然后，她就竖起了大拇指表示感觉良好。”

    戈迈兹还介绍说，目前医生们仍对术后感染的问题有所担心。

    报道说，卡苏斯患的是多骨纤维性发育不良症中罕见的一种。这是一种非遗传性的基因疾病。不断增大的肿瘤让卡苏斯的面部严重变形，如不尽快实施手术，还很可能会导致她双目失明。

    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. 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, the doctors said Friday.

    Marlie 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.

    The Haitian nonprofit Good Samaritan helped bring Casseus to the U.S. in September after the painful growth became so big it began to crush her breathing passage. The doctors are donating their time.

    Marlie's mother, Maleine Antoine, thanked doctors and all those who donated funds to help pay for the operation.

    "I hope that she has a life and will be happy like any normal teen girl. She has suffered so much," Antoine said through an interpreter.

    During the operation that began Wednesday morning, doctors inserted metal plates to reconstruct Marlie's lower eye-sockets after the mass of jelly and bone was removed.

    Doctors also reconstructed the interior of her nose, which had been all but destroyed by the disease.

    Gomez said they hoped to operate on her jaw, which has swelled to nearly double its normal size, in about two months. Further reconstructive surgeries will follow.

    Already photos of the girl before and after showed a stark difference. The bulbous mass that made her look as if her face had been stretched over an eggplant was gone.

    Gomez said Marlie will be able to breathe through her nose but is unlikely to have a sense of smell or taste.

    Only about 3 percent of the 150,000 people diagnosed with the disease worldwide suffer such an extreme condition, Gomez said.

    Back home in Port-au-Prince, Casseus was rejected by her neighbors, who would cross the street when she walked by.

    The hospital's International Kids Fund, which seeks to provide medical care to needy children from around the world, said donations for Marlie's operation had come from as far as Iceland and Hong Kong. The fund said it is seeking more money for Marlie's continued care.