Friday June 9, 2006

GUANGZHOU: Doctors here removed Tan Kia Khim’s large facial tumour in a four-hour operation that has been hailed a success.

They also reconstructed his face and rectified and reduced the size of his mouth, lips, eyes and nose to make him look better.

ATTENTIVE CARE: A nurse attending to Kia Khim at the Fuda Cancer Hospital in
Guangzhou after he underwent a two-hour surgery to remove a tumour on his face.

Tomorrow, he will get a chance to see how he looks like now, once the bandages are removed.

Thanks to Fuda Cancer Hospital, Kia Khim, 25, a coffeeshop assistant from Kampung Berjaya, Alor Star, who has had the tumour since he fell from a bed when he was only a few months old, will celebrate his 26th birthday with more confidence.

“It is also a Father’s Day present for me,” his father Tan Seong Meng, 50, told reporters at the hospital here.

“I hope (Hong) Siew Hui’s operation will be a success as without her, my son wouldn’t be in Guangzhou,” he added.

Hong, 18, had a successful first stage operation. A third of her facial tumour was frozen and removed by a procedure called cryosurgery therapy in the same hospital on Wednesday.

Hospital president Prof Xu Ke-Cheng said the operation on Kia Khim took two hours.

Both Kia Khim and Hong, from Simpang Empat, have the Kedah Chinese Assembly Hall to thank for raising funds that enabled them to have the surgery. They left Alor Star for Guangzhou on April 15.

On the possibility of the tumour re-growing, Professor Liu Da-Lie, a plastic reconstructive surgery specialist, said the possibility was there, but it would take years to form.