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Haitian Teen's Marlie Casseus First Words after successful surgeries to removed 16pds tumor: 'Thank You' and she's going back home (Haiti) for the holiday.

Marlie Casseus has undergone 4 surgeries; She stopped speaking at the age of 12

MIAMI A young Haitian girl, who had a sixteen pound tumor-like growth removed from her face, is finally able to speak and her first words after years of silence were ?Thank You?.

Marlie Casseus was unable to speak for years but now, after multiple surgeries at Holtz Children's Hospital at JMH, Marlie is saying thank you to the people responsible for the medical miracle that saved her life.

Casseus arrived in Miami a year ago and underwent multiple surgeries to remove the growth and then more surgeries to reconstruct her face.

Dr. Jesus Gomez, the maxillofacial surgeon who led the teams who operated on Marlie at Holtz Children's Hospital, said the mass that engulfed her face probably started growing when she was as young as 5.

Her condition is a rare form of polyostotic fibrous dysplasia, a nonhereditary genetic disease, which affects every bone in her body, though not to the severity with which it disfigured her face.

Marlie's mother, Maleine Antoine, says her daughter never spoke clearly, and her permanent teeth weren't appearing, but she didn't worry until Marlie was 8 and she noticed two small bumps on either side of the girl's nose. Marlie also was beginning to complain that her mouth and throat hurt when she ate.

Haitian doctors could do nothing. With no advanced medical imaging in the impoverished Caribbean country, no one could see that the bumps weren't growing on the bone ? the bumps were the bone ballooning and turning to jelly, riddled with pockets of liquid and air.

What everyone did see was Marlie's nose stretching into a snout, her eyes sliding farther apart and her upper lip pushing out past her chin.

By the time she was 12, she could no longer speak.

Over the past year, Marlie has undergone four operations, the latest in October to replace a titanium plate previously implanted to replace her jaw.

Her features have been repositioned and hard polymer has been used to replace other facial bones. Doctors say she may need more cosmetic surgeries when she stops growing.

Doctors say the facial mass won't grow back, though her condition requires lifelong monitoring.

Marlie is going home to Haiti for the holidays. She?s looking forward to going home a new person and says she is filled with new found hope and a desire to live.

The surgery was funded by the International Kids Fund, which continues to raise money for her ongoing care.

Marlie will need to return to Miami to continue to recover and the International Kids Fund seeks the ongoing support of the community to help pay for her treatment. Her family does not have medical insurance and since she is not a U.S. resident, the Holtz Children?s Hospital at UM/JMH Medical Center cannot use taxpayer?s money to fund her procedures. Instead, it offers Marlie's medical care to IKF at charitable rates.

IKF seeks to provide medical care to needy children from around the world who suffer from life-threatening illnesses that cannot be treated in these children's countries.

If you'd like to help Marlie and the International Kids Fund, you can call Neighbors for Neighbors at 305-597-4404.