A 3-year-old Ohio girl is recovering after undergoing surgery in Miami to remove a large vascular birthmark.
Brianna Brewer, a bubbly 3-year-old, had a very large vascular tumor on her face and lip, until Wednesday's procedure at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.
"We had to go inside and open the lip and take out the tumor and then reconstruct the lip to give her a normal appearing face," Dr. Chad Perlyn said.
The tumor was starting to affect her speech and growth of her face and teeth. She's patient number 100,000 to be helped by the Vascular Birthmarks Foundation.
It all started with a spot on her lip about two weeks after she was born.
"They told me not to worry, it was going to shrink and then it just continued to keep growing," mother Holliana Lockheart said.
And it wasn't just how she looked or how her development was affected, but also the psychological impact of the birthmark.
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"We would get people come up and say you know, 'oh she's a beautiful child if it wasn't for her lip,'" Lockheart said.
But not anymore. Now Brianna is making a full recovery and her doctors say that birthmark will not be coming back.
The family is now heading home to Ohio with something more to celebrate during the holidays: a new bright future for Brianna.
