African Voodoo Stoning Victim – Huge Tumour Removed
These are the before and after pictures of a woman who has had a huge rare tumour removed from her face after she was stoned by superstitious villagers who thought she was possessed.
Pascaline Patienda, 23, who is from Digre, a village in Burkina Faso, began suffering from the rare tumour when she was 15 years old.
Patienda was suffering from ameloblastoma, a slow-growing benign tumour which appeared close to her lower jaw and has now had the tumour removed at the Vithas Valencia 9 Octubre hospital, located in the city of Valencia, in the eastern Spanish region of the same name.
The surgeon who attended to her, Ignacio Solis, told Central European News (CEN): “I was contacted by a doctor from the organisation Amor en Accio (Love in Action) and told me the story of Pascaline, who had been seen by nurses with the tumour from the organisation. She was left separated from the community and was even stoned. It was believed she was possessed by something evil, so it was not just a physical issue.
“Her teeth were included in the tumour and moved, and the woman was unable to eat properly.”
According to the NGO, founded by doctors Angeles Almela, Hector Guiral, Sergi Salas, nurse Carolina Garcia, professor Gonzalo Musitur and his wife Carmen, “we have two local nurses working in Burkina Faso the whole year. One day, walking around the street, they found Pascaline and were interested in her face”.
The young woman was only able to talk in a local dialect and does not understand French, but told them that the face tumour had been growing since she was 15 years old but she never went to a doctor and the nurse proposed to help her.
She finally was able to travel to Spain where she underwent the surgery.
The young woman was only able to talk in a local dialect and does not understand French, but told them that the face tumour had been growing up since she was 15 years but she never went to a doctor and the nurse proposed to help her.
Solis added “we did a resection of the lesion and then we reconstructed it with a piece of the fibula” saying the surgery consisted of “taking a portion of the fibula, preserving its proximal and distal articulation and building a jaw to be put there”.
Once the bone material was obtained, “it was taken to her head and was stuck with an artery and a vein, connecting with the facial vessel. Later it was fixed with a reconstruction sheet”, he added.
The jaw placed into positions along with teeth implants, according to Solis.
The surgery, financed by the Foundation Vithas, the hospital and the NGO Amor en Accio was very complex and according to the surgeon, it could cost around 40,000 EUR. The surgeon and his team worked for free on the case.
The surgery was done at the end of September and after two months, Pascaline is now able to move her mouth again totally naturally and has been discharged from hospital.
Solis said: “She is very happy, she cannot communicate as she only speaks her local language, as she lives in a very poor village, with her family, but she was able to communicate through signs.”
According to the NGO, founded by doctors Angeles Almela, Hector Guiral, Sergi Salas, nurse Carolina Garcia, professor Gonzalo Musitur and his wife Carmen, “we have two local nurses working in Burkina Faso the whole year. One day, walking around the street, they found Pascaline and were interested in her face”.
She will return to Burkina Faso on 5th December, and Solis said that she will be monitored by doctors based there.
