Flangie, a 22-year-old male from Madagascar who had a 15-centimeter tumor inside his mouth, got a new life after receiving an eight-hour-long surgery at Asan Medical Center (AMC), the hospital said. The patient’s surname was not known and his passport showed only his first name, AMC said.

According to AMC, when Flangie was eight years old, he had a pain in one of his molars and his mother pulled it out.

However, after removing the tooth, inflammation began to develop around where the tooth was removed.

While a proper treatment would have easily resolved the issue, Flangie was not able to receive the right treatment as there were no proper medical facilities nearby, leaving him unattended for 10 years without receiving proper treatment.

Flangie lived in Ambavala, about 2,000 km from Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, an island country in southeast Africa.

There are no driveways leading to the village, and it is a remote area that can only be reached by walking for two days from the nearest driveway.

The village has no medical institutions and medical staff, except for one nurse presiding in the village.

While there is a hospital within three hours' walking-distance from the village, even there, Flangie could not receive any treatment due to a lack of resources.

As a result, inflammation progressed to giant cell reparative granuloma, which is an uncommon benign reactive intraosseous lesion that occurs in the skull, jaw, hand, foot, and facial bones and rarely in other skeletal sites, and started to spread.

Even though a giant cell reparative granuloma is a rare disease, which affects one in a million people, it can be easily treated with medications in the early stages.

Despite such an easy treatment method, Flangie's tumor grew very large as it was not properly treated for a long time.

A tumor the size of an adult's head developed in his mouth, making it increasingly difficult for Flangie to eat or talk.

He was also ostracized from any social life as the village kids avoided Flangie and called him mean nicknames such as a "child with a disgusting hump" and "a child possessed by a ghost."

However, Flangie's life changed when he met Professor Lee Jae-hoon, who was volunteering in Madagascar, in early 2021.

The doctor judged that the huge tumor in Flangie was difficult to treat in Madagascar and made inquiries to Korean medical institutions to see if surgery was possible.

AMC was the hospital that gladly responded to Professor Lee's request.

Flangie arrived in Korea on Aug. 31, after a 20-hour flight, and visited AMC to receive the surgery.

On Sept. 16, Professor Choi Jong-woo's team at AMC performed a major surgery that took more than eight hours in collaboration with dentistry and otolaryngology.

Professor Choi's team removed the tumor that had a size of over 15cm and weighed 810 grams.

Afterward, the team reconstructed Flangie's lower jaw, which was not functioning due to the tumor, using his calf bone.

Flangie has since recovered from his surgery and is waiting to go back home on Nov. 5.

The full cost of Flangie's treatment was supported by the Asan Foundation and AMC.

"I am so grateful to the AMC medical staff treated my face, which I had given up on, and treated me like I was a member of their family," Flangie said. "At first, I was only frustrated that I had to live with a lump for the rest of my life, but when I heard that surgery was possible, it gave me my first life goal to become a missionary."

Flangie stressed that he wants to be a person who can deliver hope to people who are experiencing similar difficulties.