College student unable to move half of her face after emergency surgery to remove rare cancer
A UK student was left unable to move the left side of her face after undergoing life-saving surgery to remove a tumor wrapped around her nerves.Ella Tyman, 21, woke up with a puffy and swollen eyes and went to the walk-in clinic thinking she had an infection.But the doctors noticed an inch-long lump behind her left ear and she was sent to Aintree Hospital in Liverpool.Scans and two biopsies revealed she had parotid gland cancer — a rare type of head and neck cancer.She underwent a six hour surgery to remove the tumor but doctors had to cut some of Ella’s nerves because the tumor was wrapped around them.Ella woke up unable to move the left side of her face and despite daily special face exercises, regular Botox treatments, and more surgery, she has only been able to regain ten percent of movement in her face.She has now been declared cancer free.Ella, who is looking for her first job in film and TV, from Liverpool, said: “When I woke up I knew straight away.“I could feel that my face wasn’t working.“I felt like my life was over in that moment; it was heart-breaking.“I really felt for the surgeon too; she was really upset.“In the time between my scans and the operation, the cancer had doubled in size.“I’m just so happy and grateful that she got the cancer out.“Having a cancer diagnosis was scary, but we were all expecting it to be a simple procedure and about a week to recover, so I was feeling okay.”Ella went to her walk in clinic in March 2023 and the doctor checked the glands in her neck and spotted a lump.She said: “I was a bit worried about my eye infection but I left with a whole new worry about the lump.“I’m lucky he noticed it though, I hadn’t.”The medic told Ella she would need to go to Aintree Hospital because she was young and the lump was unusual.Over the next five months, Ella underwent two CT scans, an ultrasound, an MRI scan and two biopsies.Then, on Aug.10, 2023, Ella got the biopsy results back, and doctors told her ...