For many, the year 2020 has been one of great stress and sacrifices due to the pandemic of coronavirus. But for a Dominican family this year it came with the best possible gift for their young son Ian, receiving the opportunity to travel to New York City and have a tumor on his head.
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The story of Ian Encarnacion CabreraThe 4-year-old finally had a happy ending, after the little boy managed to undergo surgery for a tumor that blocked his right eye. Ian was born with the tumor in the eye area that grew over the years.
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According to his mother, Jenny Cabrera, Ian felt “very ugly” and “like a monster.” That is why he searched the internet until he came across Dr. Gregory Levitin at Mount Sinai Hospital who is a specialist in children’s eyes and hatreds.
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The Cabrera family managed to travel to New York in 2019, where Levitin diagnosed Ian with an arteriovenous malformation. In other words, a tangle of blood vessels that were very close to the ocular nerve and that are difficult to operate.
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During the 2019 trip, Dr. Levitin and his team operated on Ian and removed half of the tumor. The only thing missing was for the minor to return for a second operation this year.
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Everything got complicated once the pandemic hit and New York became the epicenter in the US Then they saw travel restrictions leaving Ian and his family without the option of returning to the Big Apple.
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While they waited, they underwent medical examinations in the Dominican Republic and that was how the Cabrera family discovered that the malformation had expanded since the first operation.
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Levitin made sure the hospital authorized the second surgery as soon as possible. And on September 26 he managed to travel to New York. Three days later Ian had surgery.
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The operation that lasted almost four hours left Ian without the tumor and with a big smile back on his face.
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