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Ocala Doctor Removes Four-Pound Tumor From Haitian Woman's Mouth

June, 22 2010

Ocala Doctor Removes Four-Pound Tumor From Haitian Woman's Mouth

Lorette Pierre's home is in the isolated, mountainous area of Haiti's southern peninsula. For years she suffered quietly with a tumor in her mouth that grew so large that it jutted out of her mouth and made eating and breathing nearly impossible.
Saturday, dozens of people gathered in Ocala to see Pierre, who now shows off a smile she hasn't been able to form in a long time thanks to surgery that removed the benign tumor.
She traveled back to Haiti on Monday to reunite with her husband and six children, who she has not seen since March.
Judy Foster, who is the founder of Harvest House Haiti, a medical, educational and housing ministry that helps the poor in Haiti, met Pierre in 2009 during a medical mission to her area. Foster, whose family lives in Ocala, is currently in Haiti.
She spent months trying to get help for Pierre and thought she has secured it, but then Port-au-Prince was hit by a massive earthquake in January. The quake killed hundreds of thousands and left the capital city in ruins.
Before the earthquake, Foster and Dr. John Lieninger of Ocala, who first saw Pierre in the mountains, found a surgeon willing to perform the procedure.
Pierre and Foster were in Port-au-Prince preparing for the operation when the earthquake hit. Despite the disaster, the surgeon traveled to the Dominican Republic, where he tried to remove the tumor, but had to abandon the procedure after the bleeding could not be controlled.
But the earthquake had brought in dozens of other doctors and medical professionals to the island to help in relief efforts, and photos of Pierre started making the rounds.


For more information http://www.theledger.com/article/20100621/NEWS/6215090/1410?p=1&tc=pg