Two-year-old from Florida has ‘Batman’ birthmark removed in pioneering Russian surgery
The two-year-old’s mark has been taken off with six skin graft operations and injections of an undisclosed drug
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Your support makes all the difference.A two-year-old girl from Florida has had a Batman mask-style birthmark removed after an experimental Russian surgery.
Toddler Luna Tavares-Fenner was born with a black mark that covered her nose and eyelids. The condition is known as congenital melanocytic naevus – it affects one per cent of babies.
Marks of this kind tend to grow as the child gets bigger. Those who have the condition have a slight risk of developing skin cancer.
Luna’s mother Carolina has been taking her daughter to a specialist in Northern Europe for more than 24 months, where she has received photodynamic therapy, a procedure that is not yet available in the US.
The mark has been removed with six skin graft operations, and treatments that involved an undisclosed drug being injected into the skin to break down the tissue. “Luna is still recovering from the last surgery and now we need to be patient and wait for the crust to fall,“ said an Instagram post dedicated to Luna’s story.
It’s not been an easy process for the young girl, who has suffered infections along the way, and has lived with a number of full-face bandages throughout the treatment.
“Luna had another surgery on her eyebrow bc there was signs of infection,” reads one post. “It was supposed to be something small, but [the] doctor didn't like the 'aspect' and decided to make a new grafting.”
Mom Carolina, originally from Brazil, now a US citizen, will take her daughter back home to undergo cosmetic surgery in the new year.
“Luna has already started speaking and she says herself: 'My black spot has gone. I am a princess’,” said Luna’s doctor Pavel Popov, a laser and cancer specialist who has 20 years of experience in his field, performing more than 1000 surgeries, to East2West News.
Luna brings her dolls to each appointment with the doctor “she asks me to treat their faces,” said Dr Popov, based in Krasnodar, Russia. “I attach a plaster to the doll's face.”
Luna’s parents crowdfunded tens of thousands of dollars for her surgeries and received a sizeable donation from an anonymous Russian person, which they say was a “miracle”.
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