A U.K. toddler with a massive tumor on his right eye is scheduled to undergo life-altering surgery this week to remove the growth, thanks to the generosity of Manhattan doctors who learned about his case on Facebook, the New York Daily News has learned.
Parents Aimee Ramos-Price and Jamie Francis were told their 17-month-old son was too young for surgery and that the tumor, a mass of blood vessels called a hemangioma, would eventually shrink.
But the mass has continued to grow, blurring little Colby Ramos-Francis' vision and subjecting him to relentless teasing, the Daily News reported.
"It's gotten to the point where we needed help. Colby was being bullied by adults and children," 18-year-old Ramos-Price, Colby's mother who lives in the town of Corsham, England, told the newspaper.
Colby's parents were given medication for the growth, which was just a small, heart-shaped birthmark when he was born. The medicine did not work and with the tumor getting bigger, his parents felt they had nowhere to turn.
"A couple of times, Aimee had him in bed feeding him and his birthmark started bleeding as well," 23-year-old Francis told the Daily News. "So it was a really scary moment for us."
So Ramos-Price joined a Facebook support group for parents whose children have similar conditions and their story caught the attention of Dr. Milton Waner, director of the Vascular Birthmarks Institute of New York at Lenox Hill Hospital.
To Waner, Colby's situation was dire. Hemangiomas usually disappear a year after a child is born. But for some reason Colby's was getting bigger. The toddler could lose the ability to see in his right eye if the tumor remains, Waner said.
"My main concern was not only the fact that this child had a massive hemangioma, which was very disfiguring, but the fact that this seemed to be blocking his visual access and also indenting his cornea," he told the Daily News.
Thanks to an all-expenses-paid trip from The Little Baby Face Foundation- which helps disadvantaged children with facial abnormalities- Colby and his family are now in New York where Warner and his team are to perform the surgery on Wednesday.
"I'm really hopeful," Ramos-Price told the newspaper. "It's safe to say he's in the best hands."
