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Muriel Msani at her home in Ezimbokodweni after the operation. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo

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• Miracle surgery on deformities is all in a day’s work, says prof

If you had met Muriel Msane four years ago, you would have found a recluse who shied away from people and the constant staring at the giant cyst on her forehead.

But a life-changing operation that saw the removal of the abnormality has freed Msane and allows her to enjoy the things that other people take for granted.

When Msane, who had given up on a normal life, decided to tell her story, she had no idea it was the first step towards getting her life back and having a relationship with her grandchildren.

In December 2007 media reports about the 60-year-old woman who hid in her family home in Ezimbokodweni, near Amanzimtoti, away from glaring stares because of the cyst on her forehead, got the attention of international children’s medical charity Operation Smile.

The charity, which enables children born with facial deformities such as cleft lip and cleft palate to undergo reconstructive surgery, took note of Msane’s story and made her its first World Care Programme patient.

Since its inception in 2006, Operation Smile SA’s World Care Programme has offered surgery to people with severe facial deformities and has conducted operations on nine children from across Africa.

Muriel Msani had been living with the facial growth for the past 8 years. Picture: Sandile Ndlovu

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A couple of weeks after her story was published, Msane was diagnosed with a haematic (blood) tumour.

The tumour, which was attached to the lining of her brain and continued to grow, was caused by a blood clot from a minor trauma Msane may have suffered unknowingly.

A team of two plastic surgeons, a neurosurgeon, an ophthalmologist, an anaesthetist, trainee plastic surgeons and nurses, led by Professor Anil Madaree, undertook the six-hour operation.

Madaree said Msane had a very bad deformity and several surgeries were performed on her.

After the operation Msane had her eye removed. She had lost all vision in that eye and because of the pain it was causing, doctors suggested she have it removed.

Msane said the cyst on her face had started to grow from what appeared first as a mosquito bite.

Over a period of nine years the protrusion on her face grew steadily and the pressure from the tumour pushed the brain back and eroded her entire forehead.

Destroyed

The cyst, which destroyed her eye bone and part of her skull, was holding 1.9 litres of liquid which was drained during surgery.

Before the operation, Msane said, she had avoided mirrors. “I used to look at myself but it was very painful. I tried to stay away from mirrors,” she said.

Four years since her life-changing surgery, the mother of nine and grandmother of seven said the things she had missed most were gardening and playing with her grandchildren.

For the first time in years, Msane’s grandchildren did not shriek and wail in fear when they looked at her face.

The cyst on her face made her so uncomfortable that she did not step a foot outside her door to tend to her thriving vegetable garden.

“I missed planting and being outside a lot. Being in the garden made me happy and I was miserable without it,” she said.

Speaking about her grandchildren, Msane said it had broken her heart to know that she scared them.

“They would see my face and run away, screaming. They were so afraid. That upset me the most. Now I can play with them.”

A religious woman, Msane said not being able to go to church was also difficult.

The sole breadwinner, shehad to quit her job as a domestic worker, leaving her family to rely on her husband’s pension.

Msane, who became something of a celebrity in her neighbourhood, said that when the story first appeared in the newspaper, the nearby shop sold all its copies in minutes.

“I want to thank Operation Smile, the media, the doctors and all the people who have prayed for me. Before this operation I thought I was going to die, but I’m still here and it’s because of them,” she said.