Remarkable Story of a Girl and a Disfiguring Tumor

Our face in the mirror – it’s a sight we take for granted. But what if you could no longer recognize the reflection?

Jessica Smith was 10 years old when she developed a rare genetic mutation, called fibrous dysplasia, which progressively damaged her face. Worse yet, each time other hospitals tried to surgically remove the tumor, it would return more aggressively than before.

"It was real devastating when I found out I had this disease. It was probably the worst day of my life," Jessica says.

Then they came to Cleveland Clinic.

"This is the most severe case of a facial tumor that I ever saw. It has destroyed almost her entire face. She is left with no characteristic of her nose, her cheeks, or her upper jaws."

"We got here and everything completely changed. It was like this was where we were destined to come to," says Jessica's dad Cornelius Smith.

Doctors began working tirelessly to find a solution to the tumor that had been plaguing Jessica for years.

"Jessica came to us with a large tumorous mass on her face... it was so engrossing it completed [sic] her whole upper face and blinded one eye, and it was growing very quickly," says Dr. Frank Papay, a member of the Dermatology & Plastic Surgery Institute at Cleveland Clinic.

"This is the most severe case of a facial tumor that I ever saw. It has destroyed almost her entire face. She is left with no characteristic of her nose, her cheeks, or her upper jaws," according to Dr. Gaby Doumit, a physician with Cleveland Clinic's Dermatology & Plastic Surgery Institute.

Surgeons and caregivers were able to save Jessica's life and successfully remove all of the abnormal fibrous bone cells to help restore her appearance.

"They gave me my little girl back," says Cornelius Smith.

Amazingly through all of this adversity, Jessica's courage, strength and conquer-all attitude were unharmed.

"I know what it's like to be different, and I know what it's like to have people treat you differently because you look different. I'm happy I got the tumor because when people say looks don't matter, it's true... Now I get to be Jessica, without the tumor," according to Jessica.