Tumor removal gives girl new hope

JAKARTA (JP): A basement training room at Pondok Indah Hospital was filled good laughter, practical jokes and well- wishers on Saturday.

Doctors and nurses in their all-white fatigues crammed the room, whistling and laughing. Occupying the left row of chairs were a dozen or so fragrant, neatly dressed wives of the hospital's share holders.

"Hey, you look great, the pretty one... I almost mistook you for Memes," a doctor said as he approached a girl sitting awkwardly near two rice cones, unable to move her neck and looking straight ahead.

The girl in the light green dress, whom the surgeon likened to the famed pop singer, was Lasmi, a poor peasant from Lampung who successfully underwent tumor surgery at the hospital on May 23.

A nurse called her "Alya Rohali", referring to Indonesia's beauty, whose recent participation in the annual Miss Universe pageant held in the U.S. stirred endless debates.

The 13-year-old girl with shoulder-length black hair was recovering following surgery to remove a three-and-a-half kilogram tumor which had formed on her neck. It had reached a size larger than her head.

The girl, who could barely look around, was the toast of the day. The hospital threw a celebration party for her successful operation, which the surgeons had performed free of charge.

"Her surgical wound is recovering. There is no complication whatsoever," Dr. Siswanto, the hospital's medical director, said.

The free surgery was part of the Pondok Indah Hospital's social services conducted in connection with its 10th anniversary.

Lasmi dropped out of school when she was in grade two because she was too ashamed of her large tumor, which was impossible to hide.

She is lucky to have the sympathy of a modern health hospital. Not only did she have her heavy burden removed, but she also had the investors' wives promises of further assistance.

"We will help her until she finishes high school," said Anna R. Subagdja, who represented the share holders' wives at the party.

Lasmi was delighted at the prospect of returning to school with a radically new appearance. "Go back to school," was her shy reply when flooded with questions on her plans.

Lasmi, whom Siswanto found in a remote village of Tulangbawang Udik in Lampung last month, had but once previously had her huge tumor medically checked, long before her recent operation.

The only occasion her parents had brought their daughter to a doctor was when she was 14 months old. Her parents, cassava transmigrant farmers from Java who own a one-hectare farm, were too poor to afford the medical expenses.

"(When she was 14 months old) She had a tumor the size of a finger tip removed, but it grew again," recounted her mother, Mrs. Sakimo, who looked after her during her post-operation care.

According to Dr. Siswanto, Lasmi had a birth abnormality in the area of her upper spine, which caused fat to grow unchecked.

"We have uprooted the whole tumor. Theoretically, it will not grow again. But remember: something like a tumor is sometimes unpredictable," he told The Jakarta Post.

Yesterday, Lasmi was flown to Bandar Lampung's Abdul Muluk Hospital in Lampung, where she will continue her post-surgery medication. (pan)