Friday December 8, 2006

By G. C. TAN

ALOR STAR: SPM school leaver Hong Siew Hui who went to China in May to remove a facial tumour will return to Malaysia on Dec 12 – minus the 3kg cumbersome growth which she had since birth.

Her tumour had been successfully removed at the Fuda Cancer Hospital in Guangzhou where she had been warded since May 15.

Hong, 18, of Taman Bersatu in Simpang Empat here, is scheduled to arrive at the Penang International Airport at 9.15pm on Dec 12, Kedah Chinese Assembly Hall (KCAH) president Datuk Wong Gin Chee told a press conference here yesterday.

She will be accompanied by another Kedahan, Tan Kia Khim, 25, who also had a smaller facial tumour removed at the same hospital earlier.

Their surgery was made possible by KCAH which set up a special medical fund to send them to China to remove the tumours.

Tan, a coffeeshop assistant from Alor Star, had returned to Malaysia on July 18 after his tumour was removed but he returned to the same hospital on Nov 11 for with plastic surgery.

Wong said KCAH would charter a bus to bring the family members of both patients and journalists from Alor Star to welcome them at the Penang airport.

He said the two youths would be accompanied by several officials from the Fuda Hospital and television journalists from Guangzhou.

He thanked the public for contributing to the fund to enable both youths to have “new faces.”

Their surgery had involved many steps such as cut- ting the tumour skin, remo- ving the tumour, a “cryoa- blation procedure” to freeze the tumour, stitching back the wound and repeating the cryoablation procedure. There was also a “Transarte-rial Intervention Therapy” to prevent excessive bleeding until the hard-core tissues were completely destroyed and removed.