Girl keeps brave face despite pain of recurring tumour

Tae Kami and her mother, Sina, in Auckland. Picture / Kenny Rodger

A Tongan girl is in Auckland for the third time this year to have surgery to remove a tumour that keeps recurring and could mean years of operations.

Tae Kami, 12, has been diagnosed with a rare condition that usually strikes only adults over 40 and is mostly treated in just one operation.

By today Tae will have had four major operations this year, one of them in Tonga by Australian surgeons, to remove benign tumours from her face.

She now has fine scars running down each side of her nose.

Her surgeon, Dr Paul Simcock, said it was a very unusual case of recurrent inverted papilloma.

"I have never seen it so aggressive and returning so quickly."

Dr Simcock said the tumour was proving a difficult problem because it affected both sides of Tae's face, her nose and sinuses and was also encroaching on her eyeballs.

"There is no treatment except to operate ... It is devastating for a little girl because of the scars on her face."

Dr Simcock said Tae was handling the procedures well, but the operations were potentially dangerous as the blood loss was significant, requiring transfusions.

"And it is highly likely she will require further surgery."

Before her operation this week, Tae told the Herald her face often ached and throbbed with pain.

She took painkillers but they had little effect.

Tae said she had missed a lot of school in Nuku'alofa this year, only attending for 50 days, which upset her.

She was also going to miss Christmas at her home in the Kolomotua suburb with her friends as she had to stay in Auckland for the next six weeks.

Tae was bracing herself for her next operation.

"Sometimes the operations are a little bit frightening but I try to just get on with it ... as long as I get better."

Her mother, Sina Kami, said they had been supported by family and friends in Tonga but it was difficult on wages there to raise the thousands of dollars for ongoing treatment.

They had to find $15,000 for the last operation.

Mrs Kami said she was amazed at her daughter's fortitude.

"She has been such a brave little girl. At times I cry but she says to me, 'Mum, stop crying. I'm supposed to be the one who cries'."


 


Painful progress


2004
* December:
Symptoms of nose bleeding and swelling face.
Surgery to remove growth in nose.
Bleeding for next fortnight.


2005
* February: Tae referred to New Zealand; MRI shows tumour; New Zealand aid-assisted surgery.
* June: In Tonga symptoms return.
* July: Australian surgeons operate.
* August: Symptoms return.
* September: Privately funded operation in Auckland.
* November: In Tonga symptoms return.
* December: Operation in Auckland.


A rare condition
* Tae's tumour - a recurrent inverted papilloma - normally strikes only adults.
* It appears as a benign tumour in the sinuses.
* About one in 10 are malignant.
* Most cases are cleared in a single operation.