Man Gets His Life Back After Huge Tumour Ruined Half His Face

Tim McGrath was diagnosed with an extremely rare cancer which attacked the soft tissue in his face. The Synovial Sarcoma caused a massive tumour on the left side of his head, eroding his eye and part of his mouth.

He complained of a painful jaw in 2014, but it wasn't until he had an MRI scan, which revealed a tumour roughly the size of an egg growing under the skin. He was desperate to find a remedy which didn't involve surgery, but he found out the cancer is resistant to treatments like chemotherapy.

WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS

Credit: Caters

Eventually he settled on having the tumour surgically removed and letting doctors rebuild his face; in an operation which took 30 hours.

While medics managed to cut out the tumour, he spent a year with open flesh because his body rejected doctors' attempts at rebuilding his face.

It wasn't until Dr Kongkrit Chaiyasate stepped up to the challenge and managed to use skin from his leg and forearm to recreate his face.

Credit: Caters

The 38-year-old says: "After the operation to remove the tumour I was heartbroken, I didn't realise that half of my face would be taken away and it wasn't until I went to Dr Chaiyasate that I start to feel real hope again.

"I was covered in scars from previous surgeries which limited my options for reconstruction but we went ahead and the outcome has been incredible."

He says that despite not being able to drink, eat or say certain words, his life has not changed dramatically.

"Before the surgery they gave me the worst-case scenario, they said I would have to lose my left eye and my left ear, but I didn't believe that was going to be necessary," he adds.

Credit: Caters

"When I woke up I was in complete shock, as well as removing part of my face and bone structure, they had removed most of the muscle in my back, they had taken a rib, and they took part of my scapula and part of my shoulder too."

He's had 20 surgeries since his initial diagnosis, but he says he's taking a year off to allow his body to process the transformation. While he had financial help from a fundraising initiative which collected between $40-50,000 (£31-38,000); his insurance covered the big medical bills.

Tim says the first eight weeks in hospital cost $1.2 million (£930,000) alone.

Featured Image Credit: Caters

Topics: Surgery

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie