Man left with huge dent after his forehead is removed due to tumour invasion
A man's forehead had to be removed in lifesaving surgery after tumours invaded and left him "very, very swollen.”
Ido Simyoni, from New York, has been living with fibrous dysplasia, a condition where scar-like tissue forms instead of bone and causes benign tumours, which affect his skull. He remembered that his left eye looked smaller as a 15-year-old and when negative comments started coming his way, he decided to visit a doctor who sent him for an X-ray. He was eventually diagnosed with the rare condition.
“I’m telling my mom, ‘Everyone is saying that my left eye is becoming smaller, and I don’t know what they’re saying.’ And literally, as I’m saying it, I’m touching above my left eye and below it and I feel a bump,” he says. “I touched this on the other eye. … I don’t feel that bump.”
READ MORE: Boy, 11, dies after being shot with rifle by sister, 12, while rabbit hunting
He's had lifesaving surgery (ido8all/Instagram)
Medics have operated on his forehead multiple times (ido8all/Instagram)The condition, which according to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, starts when some babies develop in the womb. As children grow, they can develop abnormal tissues in their bones and across multiple places or just one. Ido had it in his skull.
Cherished girl, 3, who spent half her life in hospital dies before surgery
And over the years, tumours have attacked his forehead, eye socket, and the bone below his brain. Including one surgery when he was 17, which was growing into the protective covering of the brain. “It didn’t enter the brain, but it was outside,” he says. “They removed that tumour then, and then they told me, ‘You’re done. That’s it.’”
For all the latest news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to The Mirror US
The 41-year-old didn't think he'd make it out alive (ido8all/Instagram)
Tumours invaded his forehead (ido8all/Instagram)Medics were forced to intervene and replace the bone after they were filled with tumours. But the replacement bone started shrinking, which caused him dents in his forehead. It also put him at an increased risk of infections that could easily reach his brain.
However, Ido had learned to live with the condition until one morning in 2022 when he suddenly "woke up very, very swollen.” The 41-year-old told TODAY.com that "indicated to me that something is wrong." He visited a new neurologist and was forced to have two surgeries. “I had to tell them, ‘I feel something inside. I know it’s back,’” he recalls. “When they opened me, they saw the tumour," he added.
Ido has to live with the rare condition (ido8all/Instagram)The tumour grew and doctors had to stitch it shut before replacing his forehead with bone they had taken from the top of his skull. He came close to dying after too much fluid that protects the brain from infection leaked. “I remember saying goodbye to my mom and my sister,” Simyoni says. “Thankfully, the doctors brought me back.”
But he is now back on the mend and even aiming to run all six World Major Marathons in 2024. “It was a very, very tough year to go through, and now I’m getting to the other side of it,” he says. “I set myself this very ambitious goal. ... I believe in myself. I hope that my body (will) not betray me.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
