Jose Mestre aged 14, when his tumour was still small (left), and as he is now
Posted on 12/05/2007 8:35:17 PM PST by bruinbirdman
A Jehovah's Witness who for decades refused all surgery on his horrific facial disfigurement has been given hope by a British doctor and new medical technology. Unwilling to accept a blood transfusion, Jose Mestre has allowed the bloody tumour that first appeared on his lip in adolescence to obliterate almost all of his face.
Jose Mestre aged 14, when his tumour was still small (left), and as he is now
Now 15 inches long and weighing 12 pounds, it has blinded him in one eye and made eating a daily ordeal. As it begins to block his airways, doctors fear his life could be in danger.
But now one of Britain's leading facial surgeons has proposed treating Jose, 51, by employing ultrasound waves to coagulate the blood before the operation.
This should allow his growths to be removed without risk of heavy bleeding – satisfying his religious prohibition on blood transfusions that has so far hampered his search for treatment.
Jose was examined by two doctors in Britain - Loshan Kangesu, consultant plastic surgeon at Broomfield Hospital, and Dr Iain Hutchison of St Bartholomew's in London.
Dr Hutchison, who also runs the Saving Faces surgery research charity, is optimistic that a single operation with a harmonic scalpel could have a dramatic affect on Jose's features.
"I think we can remove a large proportion of the lesions – around 80 per cent," he said. "We would then have to deal with the underlying nose, lip and tongue disfigurement."
"I have never seen a vascular malformity as bad," he added.
Jose's condition, haemangioma, stems from abnormalities in the capillaries and veins in his face. In effect, what should be a river carrying blood back to his heart has turned into a lake, which has now expanded to obliterate the rest of his features.
For Jose, surgery would offer an escape from the routine he has developed to help deal with his affliction.
Every day he sets off from his home in a suburb of Lisbon for Rossio Square, one of the city's main plazas, where he sits out the afternoon enduring the stares and questions of strangers. He has become something of a local celebrity, a notoriety he does not always seem to resent.
Telegraph TV: Jose Mestre and his sister Guida in London
Unable to find work or a girlfriend, he has been supported by his siblings since the death of his mother, with whom he was very close and from whom he took his religious beliefs.
"It's very difficult to find out the truth about why he hasn't been treated in the past," said Rob Farquhar, producer of the Discovery Channel documentary which brought Jose to Britain in search of a cure.
Financial pressures, mis-diagnoses and the limitations of the Portuguese health system all played a role, but Jose's own complicated attitude to his condition has not helped.
Unsuccessful and unhappy visits to Germany and Spain in search of medical care in his youth have left him with a distrust of doctors. This, combined with his loyalty to his mother's faith, and concerns about life without the mask to which he has become accustomed, appear to have instilled Jose with a sullen fatalism about his condition.
His inertia has infuriated his close family, who do not share Jose's religious beliefs. Jose himself, although a Jehovah's Witness, does not attend any church.
During the consultation with Dr Hutchison in London, Jose's sister Guida reacted with exasperation her brother's initial reluctance to discuss the offer of a transfusion-free operation.
"Die alone, not with me. For me, finished," she cried, in dramatic footage to be broadcast for the first time this week. Guida shoulders much of the burden for caring for Jose.
Jose Mestre's siblings do not share his religious beliefs.
Um, he couldn’t have donated his own blood for a while? IT wouldn’t be as if they’re transfusing someone else’s blood into him.
I’m sorry, but I have a hard time believe that God wanted his face to be disfigured like that. The poor man.
I don’t know the finer points of Jehovah’s Witness theology, but that certainly makes sense to me.
prayer bump
What the hell?
I don’t like it when I see a zit on my face. This is hard to look at.
I’d think that he’d have been able to donate enough blood in a relatively shot amount of time to cover the blood loss when it was initially noticed and relatively small.
I hate to ask the obvious, but how can he breathe, see, eat brush his teeth or blow his nose? He should get the surgery and renounce thaty religion Jehovah’s Witness is a crock claiming to be Christian.
Damn!
Just Damn!
DAY-um....
Whatever! That is some Sheet!
Its a good thing he did not get a blood transfusion or God would surely smite him.....but then again maybe this is what getting smited by God looks like
Hmmm this is sure nasty looking & I hope they can help this guy asap. Prayers that they can.
I’ll pray right along with you, for this poor soul. Bless his heart!
It’s hard to believe that any faith would call it a sin to accept medical help in dealing with such a condition. Cults steeped in legalism do much harm to their followers.
Where in the Bible does it state that it is wrong to have a transfusion? Because I’ve never come across it.
Unbelievable.
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