Girl Needs Surgery To Remove 16-Pound Tumor On Face

[nickel]

Girl Needs Surgery To Remove 16-Pound Tumor On Face

Mother Begs For Help For Daugther

POSTED: 8:31 am EST November 11, 2005
UPDATED: 9:40 am EST November 11, 2005

A team of doctors in South Florida are prepared to help a young girl who has a rare 16-pound tumor growing on her face if enough money is raised to help the child, according to a Local 6 News report.

Doctors said when Marlie Casseus was born, she looked like any other girl. But a tumor formed and as she grew so did the tumor. She was recently diagnosed with Polyostotic Fibrous Dysplasia.

Polyostotic Fibrous Dysplasia has not only deformed her face, but severely affected her respiratory system.

The painful tumor now engulfs her face and is endangering her life, according to the report.

http://images.ibsys.com/2005/1111/5302533_240X180.jpg http://images.ibsys.com/2005/1111/5302585.jpg

A team of doctors in Miami are ready to help the 14-year-old girl but they have to wait until enough money is raised to pay for her hospital stay.

The family is asking people to donate to Marlie's cause by donating to the International Kids Fund.

If you would like to help, click International Kids Fund. Marlie is the month's featured child.

The operation is expected to cost about $95,000.
http://www.local6.com/health/5302544/detail.html

i don't get it. why is money an issue here? can't they find it in their hearts to JUST DO IT!

[ArkiStan]

The tumor IS her face.

[zippyjuan]

Poor thing- looks like her face is about to explode! Even eating has to be hard.

[ooBaKeep]

Ahhhhhhhhhh poor thing, I hope they are able to help her. I'd like to see the results and a follow-up over the next few years. I'm sure there is more than one surgery involved to enable her to have some quality of life.

GOOD LUCK and PRAYERS for her and the Dr's. :halo:

[Mommypooh]

Smack the doctors. What they don't make enough money from everything else they do? I am sure they could do it for a lot less or nothing for that matter. Money grubbing @$$es.

[ialsohaveadream]

http://www.local6.com/health/5302544/detail.html

i don't get it. why is money an issue here? can't they find it in their hearts to JUST DO IT!
Because you could say that about any case, really. Pretty much any time someone needs a major operation, it's a sad case.

Still, I feel for the poor girl. If I hadn't given to numerous relief efforts already in the past several months (freakin natural disasters...), I'd chip in cash for her.

[Nija]

Smack the doctors. What they don't make enough money from everything else they do? I am sure they could do it for a lot less or nothing for that matter. Money grubbing @$$es.
Contrary to popular belief, being a doctor does not automatically make you rich. Surgery is expensive. Very expensive. If you break your arm and have to have 12 metal pins and 2 metal plates put on to make sure you can use your arm, do you know how much it costs? $23,000. That's more money than I made ALL of last year.

[avlena]

Contrary to popular belief, being a doctor does not automatically make you rich. Surgery is expensive. Very expensive. If you break your arm and have to have 12 metal pins and 2 metal plates put on to make sure you can use your arm, do you know how much it costs? $23,000. That's more money than I made ALL of last year.

plus, in this case, the doctors are completely willing to operate and help out. the money being raised is for the hospital stay. The hospital has to pay for utilities, nursing staff, maintenance, cleanup, etc. It's not just a matter of a doctor giving their time/effort, it costs a lot for supplies and overhead too.

[tupacboy]

wow.... i wonder why they waited so long... its not like a tumor that size grows overnight...

[Cheesypuff]

sorry to bring a political aspect into this thread...but MONEY!!! HELLO!!!!! THIS GIRL IS IN DIRE NEED!!!! F**k money and help this girl. capitalizm sucks!

[Burzhui]

wow.... i wonder why they waited so long... its not like a tumor that size grows overnight...


that's what i was thinking

[Burzhui]

sorry to bring a political aspect into this thread...but MONEY!!! HELLO!!!!! THIS GIRL IS IN DIRE NEED!!!! F**k money and help this girl. capitalizm sucks!


Well essentially because those doctors have other patients who ARE willing to pay MONEY. So lets see what would you spend your 4 hours on a paying patient or a non-paying patient

[bachviet]

That's sad. :eek:

[eSDee]

wow.... i wonder why they waited so long... its not like a tumor that size grows overnight...

Because she is from Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Medical attention there is nearly non existant.

[Cheesypuff]

Well essentially because those doctors have other patients who ARE willing to pay MONEY. So lets see what would you spend your 4 hours on a paying patient or a non-paying patient


I would spend it on helping HUMANS!!!!

[ialsohaveadream]

I would spend it on helping HUMANS!!!!
All that "helpin' others" stuff would keep you warm when you went home to your cardboard box at night. ;) (I kid, I kid...I'm a liberal, I care about other humans)

Anyway, I'm interested to see how well the surgery works. It looks like something that will take a LOT of corrective measures to fix.

[Grimm]

Generaly, in cases like this the doctors are donating their time.
Absolutely free, gratis.

However, the hospitaly they need to use has a great deal of expenses. While they sometimes do donate or probably very frequently reduce the charges, if they gave away all the resources for these things they would be out of business fast. Then there would be no where to go to get any major medical treatment.

Socialized medicine is looking better and better.

[Burzhui]

I would spend it on helping HUMANS!!!!

paying humans or non-paying humans

they're helping humans either way, but those that pay money would obviously come first

[eSDee]

You can donate here:

https://www.internationalkidsfund.org/ikf_kids/donate.cfm?KD_ID=123

Any amount of cash.

[hapoo]

A team of doctors in South Florida are prepared to help a young girl who has a rare 16-pound tumor growing on her face if enough money is raised to help the child, according to a Local 6 News report.


I don't know what you guys are reading, but from what i understood, they'll do it for free so long as the other expenses are paid for.

[sizemic1]

Why wait until this thing got to be 16lbs!? I know if it were my kid, i would have dealt with it when it was the size of a grape.

[dougadam]

wow.... i wonder why they waited so long... its not like a tumor that size grows overnight...

Ditto

[booger73]

The same reason most people wait, they either

1) can't afford to take care of it..
2) are in denial about it..
3) don't know any better...

if you'd seen some of the things i've seen that people 'wait' about, you wouldn't be as surprised

[molecularfire]

Generaly, in cases like this the doctors are donating their time.
Absolutely free, gratis.

However, the hospitaly they need to use has a great deal of expenses. While they sometimes do donate or probably very frequently reduce the charges, if they gave away all the resources for these things they would be out of business fast. Then there would be no where to go to get any major medical treatment.

Socialized medicine is looking better and better.
That was the impression that I got (that the doctors would do it for free, but they won't pay for her hospital stay out of their own pockets) of course I didn't see that in the article exactly so I don't know that for a fact.

It is easy to say what other people should do to make this world a better place, but what are we doing? We haven't come up with a way to get this done... it should just be that everybody else should sacrifice to help her. The doctors should work for free, the nurses should just work for free, the techs. should just work for free, the hospital should just let her stay for free, the suppliers should just give stuff for free, etc... we are willing to sacrifice the time and effort of everybody else except ourselves. Yeah, occasionally we get a case like this that tugs at our heartstrings and we can get all self-righteous and blame others for not being better people but the fact is people die every day because of economics. We have decided that it is not worth it for us as a society to pay for health care and this is a cost of it.

[brau]

This is an awful story and I hope for the best for this girl.


We have decided that it is not worth it for us as a society to pay for health care and this is a cost of it.Well, it's nice to see the famous internet discussion trend of "Making Things Up" is still alive and well.

An October 20, 2005 poll by Harris Interactive found that universal health insurance is favored by 75 percent of all adults, including 63 percent or more of all religious groups.

An October, 2003 Washington Post/ABC poll, by almost a two-to-one margin (62 percent to 33 percent), Americans said that they preferred a universal system that would provide coverage to everyone under a government program, as opposed to the current employer-based system.

In August 2003, Pew found Americans favoring, by 67 percent to 26 percent, the U.S. government guaranteeing “health insurance for all citizens,” even if that meant repealing most of “recent tax cuts.” And the majority was scarcely diminished (67 percent to 29 percent) by referring not to repealing tax cuts but more directly to “raising taxes.” Similarly, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner/Public Opinion Strategies (GQR/POS) found, in January 2004, a 69 percent to 28 percent majority saying that they would be willing to pay more per year in federal taxes to assure every American citizen received health care coverage.

[nickel]

I don't know what you guys are reading, but from what i understood, they'll do it for free so long as the other expenses are paid for.
that's how i read it, but as a hospital admin or a doc there i would be pleading with suppliers and whoever else to eat the costs of this girl's operation where they can.

a friend of mine has even sent an email off to Oprah and asked her for help.

[eSDee]

Well, it's nice to see the famous internet discussion trend of "Making Things Up" is still alive and well.


Um, who are you? That's pretty low of you to state the molecularfire is "making things up". He shared his opinion on the matter which is a very valid point. If you don't agree with him then tell him you don't, and then share your points. Don't trash someone who has been posting here for over 4 years with one of your first 3 posts. Not if you want anyone to listen to what you have to say, that is.

Donate first and worry about the details later I say. She's an unprivileged person from an impoverished society. That is the reason why it hasn't been taken care of already. I would like to find out the details of the story but I wouldn't be surprised if her family had been seeking help for a while now. The fact that is that she needs our help now, and 90 g's seems pretty doable. Especially since the website takes any amount of donation.

I don't want to sound like I'm on a soapbox, because I'm not. I just know that others have gone through the same procedure, and so the procedure sounds positive. But she needs help now before the tumor cuts off her ability to breathe.

[molecularfire]

This is an awful story and I hope for the best for this girl.

Well, it's nice to see the famous internet discussion trend of "Making Things Up" is still alive and well.

An October 20, 2005 poll by Harris Interactive found that universal health insurance is favored by 75 percent of all adults, including 63 percent or more of all religious groups.

An October, 2003 Washington Post/ABC poll, by almost a two-to-one margin (62 percent to 33 percent), Americans said that they preferred a universal system that would provide coverage to everyone under a government program, as opposed to the current employer-based system.

In August 2003, Pew found Americans favoring, by 67 percent to 26 percent, the U.S. government guaranteeing “health insurance for all citizens,” even if that meant repealing most of “recent tax cuts.” And the majority was scarcely diminished (67 percent to 29 percent) by referring not to repealing tax cuts but more directly to “raising taxes.” Similarly, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner/Public Opinion Strategies (GQR/POS) found, in January 2004, a 69 percent to 28 percent majority saying that they would be willing to pay more per year in federal taxes to assure every American citizen received health care coverage.
You can post all of the polls you want, we are still one of the very few industrialized countries left that doesn't have a universal health care system. We haven't set up a system to parcel it, and we haven't set up a system to pay for it. Yes, people are good at giving it lip service but as a society, what have we done to get it?

[welfareloser]

:stupid:

a hospital can go out of business pretty easily... most are really not capable of donating their services. ditto doctors - being a doctor doesn't make you rich. most doctors i know are more than willing to donate their time when they can, but they have families to feed, too. there are charities you can apply to. that's really the only way that it is possible to pay for expensive procedures for the poor.

it's hard for most doctors to even accept medicare/medicaid patients, since the government has now cut payments such that it doesn't even cover costs, let alone provide any extra for luxuries like, you know, an actual salary... a doctor could easily go broke trying to provide care to the indigent. those that do either have to carefully manage the ratio of poor/paying patients or have to receive grants from charities or other organizations to stay in business.

and my kid's had 2 surgeries... one removing a cyst from his face, no less. total cost was about 8,000, and if i remember correctly, less than $1000 of that (maybe less than $500) was the physician's fee. he had another surgery that ran around 150,000 all told, and again, very little of that went to the physician.

i can't imagine how this surgery could only cost $95,000... reconstructing her face is gonna take hours and lots of follow-up care.