Advertisement

Anonymous donor provides surgery for three-year-old girl with facial deformity

Kaitlin Nguyen is getting surgery to have facial deformation fixed thanks to anonymous donor.

On Tuesday, three-year-old Kaitlin Nguyen underwent a lengthy surgery to remove a large lymphatic malformation that had left a bulge in one side of her face.

The operation was funded by an anonymous donor.

Feel pretty” were Kaitlin’s words of anticipation in the hours leading up to the surgery.

“We’re going to do our best, but you’re already pretty aren’t you?” Kaitlin’s surgeon, Dr. Gregory Levitin, director of the Vascular Birthmark Center at Mount Sinai Roosevelt in New York, told her.

“She’s not shy,” Levitin said of his young patient. “She’s walking around here charming all the nurses and pushing the wheelchairs.”

While the growth under the skin on Kaitlin’s face wasn’t cancerous or life-threatening, Kaitlin’s mother, Thuy Nguyen, wanted it removed before her daughter went to school, in the hopes of avoiding bullying.

She first approached surgeons when Kaitlin was just a year old, but the complicated placement of the growth made it difficult for much of it to be removed.

Levitin planned to remove the tissue in a lengthy operation that aimed to preserve normal tissue and nerves while removing abnormal tissue. He hopes that by having the procedure done while she’s young, Kaitlin will be better able to manage the growth in the future — if it returns during puberty.

“If you operate at an early age such as now, there’s only 20 percent left,” Levitin told ABC News.

When Levitin heard that Kaitlin’s parents were searching for a way to fund the costly procedure — the California family’s insurance provider refused to cover the procedure in New York — he approached the anonymous donor with their story.

Levitin told The Huffington Post that the donor had previously offered to pay for another man’s birthmark-removal procedure and was happy to give back again.

“Just by the pictures he fell in love with this girl. He’s happy to do this,” Levitin said of the donor.

“I wanted to say thank you to the donor who made this happen for Kaitlin, I would love to thank him,” Kaitlin’s mother told ABC News.

On the day after the operation, Levitin told The Huffington Post that Kaitlin’s challenging surgery went “wonderfully” and the little girl is recovering well.

“This was a real game-changer operation,” Levitin said. “It is my expectation that she will be just like any other three-year-old girl who walks down the street with beautiful brown eyes and a cheery smile.”