'Elephant Man' With 25kg Facial Tumour Has Life-Changing Surgery

Life-Changing Surgery For 'Elephant Man' With 25kg Facial Tumour
|

A man who was cruelly dubbed China’s ‘elephant man’ has had a fourth operation to remove the world’s biggest facial tumour.

Huang Chuncai from Hunan Province, China had a 25kg growth that hung down to his waist.

In a series of four life-saving operations he has had 21kg of the mammoth tumour removed – and can finally lead a normal life.

Open Image Modal

Huang Chuncai was left virtually debilitated by the 25kg tumour hanging from his face

The 37-year-old has the worst case of Neurofibromatosis ever recorded and he could barely move, eat or sleep.

The rare condition causes excessive cell growth and tumours that disfigured Huang’s face.

Huang was left untreated for 30 years as his parents could not afford medical treatment and he grew to just 4 foot in height as the pressure of the 25kg tumour on his spine stunted his growth and gave him a hunchback.

Surgery for China's 'Elephant Man'
(01 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)
(02 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)
(03 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)
(04 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)
(05 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)
(06 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)
(07 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)
(08 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)
(09 of09)
Open Image Modal
China's Elephant Man has had a fourth operation to remove the world's biggest facial tumour. (credit:Barcroft Media)

He said: “My tumour was enormous and heavy, I had to hold it while I was walking around.”

When his parents were offered money to send him to a circus freak-show, Huang was so humiliated he considered suicide

In 2007 media coverage raised awareness of Huang’s plight and he was offered major facial surgery by the Chinese Government.

Doctors at Fuda Cancer Hospital weren’t convinced surgery was possible due to the size of the tumour.

Chief physician at Fuda Hospital, Wu Binghui said: “I was shocked, I had never seen a tumour as big as Huang’s on a human body.

“I was completely overwhelmed. The tumour was huge and full of blood. It would flow out when you cut it.”

But in four life-changing operations over the course of seven years, the surgeons managed to remove 21kg of the massive facial deformity.

Huang's mother He Baohua said: “I think his face is smaller and thinner and we are so happy that his life is easier and happier now."

Open Image Modal

Huang's growth was stunted by the weight of the tumour

Now – after his final operation – Huang is looking forward to living a normal life.

He said: “I feel really good, this time my face feels even better – much lighter and it’s easier to eat.

“I hope I can do some work and earn some money – I will be helping to run our local shop.

“I don’t look as scary as before now my tumour is much smaller.”

To see Huang’s transformation, tune into a new series of Body Bizarre, which airs on Thursday at 9pm on TLC.

Amazing Anatomies
Kristy Love(01 of29)
Open Image Modal
Georgia-based masseuse Kristy Love, 34, earns as much as $1800 a day by massaging clients with her size 48NN breasts. (credit:Facebook.com)
Chandra Wisnu: The Bubble Skin Man(02 of29)
Open Image Modal
Chandra Wisnu is a married father of four living in Indonesia afflicted by an extreme case of Neurofibromatosis type I (NF-1), a tumor disorder that is caused by a gene malfunction and causes non-cancerous lumps. The disease is genetic and affects up to one in 2500 people. (credit:Courtesy of TLC)
My Giant Face Tumor(03 of29)
Open Image Modal
Ed, the star of a TLC special, "My Giant Face Tumor," suffers from Neurofibromatosis, a disorder that causes tumors to grow uncontrollably along nerve shafts. These tumors have completely taken over his face, robbing him of sight, eroding his skull and causing deep emotional scars. (credit:TLC/Dr. McKay McKinnon)
Eye Socket Strength(04 of29)
Open Image Modal
Yang Guanghe pulls a vehicle with his eye sockets in Anshun, Guizhou Province of China on April 28, 2012. Yang Guanghe dragged a 1.6 ton vehicle successfully. (credit:Alpha / Landov)
Chandra Bahadur Dangi (05 of29)
Open Image Modal
Guinness World Records officials have measured Chandra Bahadur Dangi to confirm his height of 21.5 inches (54.6 centimeters). That makes him not only the world's shortest living man but the world's shortest person ever recorded in Guinness' 57-year history. (credit:Guinness World Records)
Paul Mason(06 of29)
Open Image Modal
Paul Mason, 50, who weighed 60 stone two years ago, underwent a gastric bypass after he was told he otherwise faced certain death. But he has been left with rolls of unsightly excess skin after the extreme weight loss and now needs an operation to remove the flaps hanging from his stomach, arms and legs. However, NHS bosses have refused to perform cosmetic surgery, insisting that he needs to maintain a stable weight before it can be considered. (credit:Paul Nixon Photography)
(07 of29)
Open Image Modal
Chris "The Dutchess" Walton has entered with Guinness World Records book with record-setting fingernails to 19 feet, 9 inches long. (credit:Damon Scheleur for Huffington Post)
Donna Simpson(08 of29)
Open Image Modal
Donna Simpson, of Akron, Ohio, holds the Guinness record for heaviest woman ever to bear children. She won the title by weighing a whopping 532 pounds when she gave birth to her daughter, Jacqueline, in February 2007 -- an event that required 30 doctors. (credit:Barcroft / Fame Pictures)
Pauline Potter(09 of29)
Open Image Modal
Pauline Potter, a 47-year-old, 643-pound Californian, has earned a spot in the 2012 Guinness World Records 2012 record book as the World's Heaviest Woman. (credit:Ryan Schude, Guinness World Records)
Susanne Eman(10 of29)
Open Image Modal
Big model Susanne Eman, a 32-year-old single mother-of-two from Casa Grande, has made it her goal to break the world record for heaviest woman. Currently, she weighs nearly 700 pounds and hopes to tip the scales at 1200 pounds within the next decade. (credit:Barcroft / Fame Pictures)
Eye-Popping Contest Winner 2011(11 of29)
Open Image Modal
Jalisa Thompson, from Atlantic City, took the top honor and the $500 prize for first place at the Ripley's 15th annual Great Face Off. (credit:Ripley's Believe It or Not!)
Man With 12 Fingers(12 of29)
Open Image Modal
Yoandri Hernandez Garrido, 37, is known as "Twenty-Four" because he has 12 fingers. Hernandez, who lives in Baracoa, Cuba, is proud of his extra digits because they enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts and posing for photographs with tourists. (credit:AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
Indian woman with two wombs has given birth to two boys(13 of29)
Open Image Modal
Rinku Devi, 28, with her one-week-old sons (yet to be named) at the Mati Sadan Parijat Nursing Home on August 5, 2011 in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, India. An Indian woman with two wombs has given birth to two boys, one from each uterus. Delighted mum Rinku Devi delivered her one-in-fifty-million babies last Friday (29 July) in the northern city of Patna. Stunned doctors said giving birth to healthy babies conceived in different ovaries is so rare an average of one case is reported each year anywhere in the world. The babies, however, are not twins, as they were conceived at different times. According to gynaecologist Dr. Dipti Singh, "Rinku Devi suffers from a rare medical condition known as the uterus didelphys in which the womb develops in two parts, each with its own fallopian tube. It is quite a rare congenital condition and less than 100 women around the world are known to have it." Rinku's condition was not diagnosed until she went into labor, but after a one-hour-long surgery, she gave birth to two little boys weighing 2 kilograms and 1.5 kilograms respectively. (credit:Barcroft / Fame Pictures)
Foot Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale(14 of29)
Open Image Modal
Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale, 42, hammers in a nail using his feet on July 9, 2011 in his workshop in Welete Suk, on the edge of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (credit:Barcroft / Fame Pictures)
Foot Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale(15 of29)
Open Image Modal
In this photo, Sintayehu Tishale, 42, plugs in his electric drill with his feet on July 9, 2011 in his workshop in Welete Suk, on the edge of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (credit:Barcroft / Fame Pictures)
Most Fingers And Toes(16 of29)
Open Image Modal
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011. (credit:Guinness World Records)
Most Fingers And Toes(17 of29)
Open Image Modal
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011. (credit:Guinness World Records)
Most Fingers And Toes(18 of29)
Open Image Modal
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011. (credit:Guinness World Records)
Huge Leg Tumor(19 of29)
Open Image Modal
Nguyen Duy Hai, 31, of Vietnam suffered from a 176-pound tumor in his leg and has appealed for funds to pay for a surgery to remove it. The tumor has left him unable to walk. (credit:EPA/Landov)
Hairiest Girl in the World(20 of29)
Open Image Modal
Supatra Sasuphan eats lunch in Ratchabophit school in Bangkok, Thailand on February 28, 2011. After Supatra was named the 'hairiest girl in the world' by Guinness, she says that getting the award has boosted her confidence and she has taken up dancing, singing, and acting. She loves listening to Thai pop music and makes her own dance routines to the latest hits with her friends. (credit:Barcroft / Fame Pictures)
Most Pierced Woman Marries(21 of29)
Open Image Modal
Elaine Davidson, who holds the record for World's Most Pierced Woman with 6,925 piercings, outside Edinburgh Registry Office following her wedding to an unnamed man. (credit:Danny Lawson, Press Association)
Larry Gomez: The Wolf Boy(22 of29)
Open Image Modal
Larry Gomez, better known as "Wolf Boy" at the Venice Beach Freakshow, suffers from Hypertrichosis or "Werewolf Syndrome."
Conjoined Twins(23 of29)
Open Image Modal
The two-headed conjoined female twin babies in a hospital on May 9, 2011 in Suining city in southwest China's Sichuan province. The twins were born on May 5, 2011 by caesarean. Two previous ultrasound scans in September and February both reported a single embryo to her mother Bao Qiaoying, a migrant worker, until a check on May 3rd found it had two heads. The parents wanted to abort the fetus but it was already too late. The hospital says they are China's first reported two-headed conjoined twin babies, born 4.05kg together. (credit:Barcroft / Fame Pictures)
World's Shortest Woman(24 of29)
Open Image Modal
Indian Joyti Amge, alleged world's shortest girl with a height of 22.8 inches, poses with her toys on the evening of her 17th birthday on December 15, 2010 in Nagpur. (credit:AFP / Getty Images)
World's Tallest Man(25 of29)
Open Image Modal
Sultan Kosen, the world's tallest man, with AOL Weird News editor Buck Wolf. At 8-foot-1, Kosen is the tallest man measured by Guinness World Records in more than two decades. (credit:Marc Hartzma for AOL News)
Tallest and Shortest Men (26 of29)
Open Image Modal
Sultan Kosen, world's tallest man, meeting the world's shortest man, He Pingping Turkey to celebrate the 15 January opening of the new Guinness World Records Live! Roadshow at Forum Istanbul. (credit:Guinness World Records)
No Bathing Man(27 of29)
Open Image Modal
Guru Kailash Singh, of India, has refused to bathe for 37 years in the hopes that the gods will bless him with a son after the birth of seven daughters. (credit:Barcroft/Fame Pictures)
(28 of29)
Open Image Modal
This baby with six legs was born in Sukkur, a city in the Sindh Province of Pakistan on Friday, April 13, 2012, according to the National Institute of Child Health. (credit:National Institute Of Child Health)
Lots Of Fingers And Toes(29 of29)
Open Image Modal
Arpan Saxena, pictured here at 4, has 13 fingers and 12 toes, some of which are fused together. (credit:YouTube)