Vietnamese boy thanks Boston doctors for his smile, Vietnamese boy thanks Boston doctors for his smile

Vietnamese boy thanks Boston doctors for his smile

A young Vietnamese boy who has been living with caregivers in Halifax was in Boston Friday to thank the people who donated money and medical services to help remove a large tumour from his face.

"I want to thank them for all their help because they make my cheek smaller," said a smiling Son Pham, 12.

Son was brought from a Vietnamese orphanage to Canada 2½ years ago by the Ottawa-based charity Children's Bridge Foundation. The charity hoped to give Son a chance at a better life by helping him get a football-sized growth on his face removed.

Twenty-six surgeries later, most of the growth, a birthmark that had grown since Son was born, is gone.

"I feel good and don't have to go to hospital anymore," said Son Friday.

His final surgery was on Jan. 12, and he will return to Vietnam next month to live with a foster family.

"I knew it would be a long, long road," said Dr. John Mulliken, the Boston plastic surgeon who treated Son. "It was worth starting on the road."

Mulliken, who specializes in vascular anomalies, said he's done as much as he can for now and with Son's condition being stable, it's time for him to go back to just being a boy.

Son will, however, eventually require jaw surgery and dental work, and it's possible the tumour will start to grow again, Mulliken said.

Turned away in Toronto

Son, seen pre-treatment in 2007, with the football-sized birthmark that has grown since he was born. (CBC)  
Mulliken and a team of specialists at Children's Hospital Boston agreed to provide Son's care at no charge after Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children told the Children's Bridge Foundation it wouldn't help.

Toronto doctors said there were risks to the procedure to remove the growth and that the growth was not life-threatening.
Mulliken disagreed. He believed the growth could eventually encroach on Son's airway or diminish his blood's ability to clot.

"It was at that point [we said], no matter what, we're gonna get this boy treatment," recalled Olwyn Walter, a volunteer with Children's Bridge Foundation and Son's caregiver in Halifax.

The charity raised about $500,000 from Canadians to bring Son to North America and have the sponge-like facial tumour removed.

It also enlisted the help of Ray Tye, of the Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation, who contributed $200,000 to the cause.
Son gave him a painting of the two of them in a boat.

"When he said, 'Thank you [for] helping me to look like everyone else,' you realize what this boy was going through," said Tye.

Son plans to stay in Boston for the weekend and go sightseeing, which he's never done despite his many visits to the city.

He will head back to Halifax on Sunday and is scheduled to leave for Vietnam on Feb. 7, in time to celebrate his 13th birthday there.