Senior Investigative Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
It took 24 surgeries and 60 hours of operating time for a team of American doctors to remove hundreds of growths from T&T citizen Charmaine Sahadeo’s face, head and body.
The surgeries, performed over ten weeks in 2023, have transformed Sahadeo’s physical appearance.
From being called a monster and scorned by people who were insensitive to the cluster of lumps that covered her small-framed body, Sahadeo’s surgeries have given her a new lease on life.
Although her operations are far from over, Sahadeo’s self-esteem and confidence are gradually being restored, an emotional status which she lacked for years.
She now has the strength and courage to look in a mirror.
“I didn’t know I was so pretty...so beautiful,” she told Guardian Media with a broad smile.
With clasped hands, Sahadeo, 44, could not stop thanking God and the doctors for her remarkable recovery and lightening her burdens during a recent interview at her Chaguanas home.
“Heavenly Father, I thank you for blessing me and for easing up plenty of my pains.”
For more than three decades, Sahadeo, a mother of two, has been living with neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumours to form all over the body.
The health condition made Sahadeo unrecognisable.
The tumours, over time, covered Sahadeo’s face, legs, head, arms, back and chest.
A massive growth on her right leg weighing more than 20 pounds, also prevented her from walking and standing for more than a few minutes.
The nodules also caused extreme pain.
In 2022, the Sunday Guardian highlighted Sahadeo’s medical condition as she pleaded for help.
“I was terrified of dying. I used to get problems to breathe, to eat and to see,” she recalled.
Growths of varying sizes grew inside and around Sahadeo’s nostrils, eyes and mouth. There was one tumour inside her mouth which made eating and speaking difficult.
However, she felt that local doctors knew very little about her condition and contacted experts at The Learning Channel (TLC) who had featured people with growths in a television series called “Take My Tumour.”
The series showed how surgery had transformed the lives of patients living with tumours.
It gave Sahadeo hope.
“I got fed-up going to the San Fernando Hospital and nothing was being done,” she said.
Surgeries
Touched by Sahadeo’s plight, persons associated with the series made arrangements for her to visit Los Angeles last April, where Dr Ryan Osborne, a specialist in head and neck oncology and a pioneer in life-saving surgical treatment, began treating her.
Osborne had planned to place Sahadeo under general anaesthesia to remove the lumps from her face.
However, the procedure became problematic, as Osbourne could not find a vein in Sahadeo’s hands and a mask could not fit over her face to breathe in the gas.
Sahadeo had to be placed under local anaesthesia for the four-hour-long procedure to be completed.
Throughout the painless surgery, Sahadeo watched, as the doctors carefully severed one tumour at a time using their scalpel blades.
“I never thought I would have lived to see that day. I was overjoyed.”
However, that was just the start for Sahadeo, who underwent 23 additional surgical procedures which were free of charge.
On June 26, Sahadeo returned home with a pep in her step.
“My pains are gone,” she boasted.
The doctors told Sahadeo more surgeries would be required but she first had to gain weight.
“The bumps and them was so heavy. So now that it gone, my skin feel different ...and it feel much lighter,” she revealed.
As a child, Sahadeo lived a normal life.
That changed when she became a teenager.
“I started noticing a few lumps forming on my skin.”
Then it started spreading.
“By the time I had my second son, every part of my body had the tumours.”
Sahadeo believes that her physical appearance caused her marriage of 18 years to crumble.
What worried her the most was her “bubble wrap” face, which created stares and insensitive comments in public spaces.
People also heaped scorn when they looked at her.
“Many times, I was called a monster and ugly. Sometimes, I would be in a taxi and nobody would want to come in the car,” she recalled.
The heartless treatment made Sahadeo a recluse.
She became a prisoner in her home.
“I does say people doesn’t know what you are going through.”
While Sahadeo is thankful for the life-changing transformation, she said, her domestic problems have not diminished.
Sahadeo’s home needs repairs.
Three of her glass windows have been shattered by strong winds, her kitchen cupboards are falling apart and the wooden doors inside her home are termite-infested.
“I can’t afford to replace the broken glass. I had to block off the open spaces with pieces of board.”
Sahadeo has no money to burglar-proof her home or do repairs.
She collects a monthly $2,000 disability grant from the Ministry of Social Development which can barely pay her rent, utility bills and buy food.
Only one son, who works for minimum wage, lives with Sahadeo.
Now, she is asking God to relieve her financial stress.
“My financial problems Lord... I put that in your hands.”
For anyone wanting to assist Charmaine, she can be contacted at 714-3900.
