Dr. Rick Hodes first met Merdya Abdisa a year ago when she wandered in to the Catholic Mission where he works. Hodes is an internal medicine doctor who has lived in Ethiopia for 20 years.
His practice is filled with patients suffering from ailments that have gone untreated for far too long. But he had never seen anything like Merdya's tumor.
"It's deformed her face. She has to cover half of her face. Her eye is popped all the way out. It's really quite unnerving to see it. And for the last three years she's basically been inside because she doesn't want to walk on the street because people are afraid if they see her."
Even Hodes' description doesn't quite capture the way Merdya's face was deformed. A cone-shaped mass of skin protruded from her right eye socket. Her eyeball rested at the tip of the cone. She was unable to close the eye because her eyelid was too stretched out.
Hodes was deeply moved by Merdya's plight. He immediately began sending photos of her to brain specialists asking if they could help. He contacted at least six world-renowned neurosurgeons without success. More...
See also: Lai Thi Dao, the girl with a 16-pound tumour...
And this: Jose Mestré, the man with no face...
And this: L’homme sans visage...
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