Docs rebuilt my tongue with muscle from my arm
Mum, 28, has life-saving surgery
A YOUNG mum had her tongue rebuilt using muscle and skin from her arm, after contracting a potentially deadly cancerous ulcer.
Liz Marsh, 28, became one of the youngest patients in the UK to be diagnosed with mouth cancer.
The ulcer on her tongue had tripled in size in just four weeks.
She underwent surgery to remove the growth and surgeons also had to cut off a third of her tongue.
During the same 14-hour operation they used skin, muscle arteries and veins taken from her arm to rebuild her tongue.
Liz, of Shrewsbury, Shrops, has had to relearn basic skills. She said: “It was a complex surgery, but I was out of hospital 11 days later. “I had been fed through a tube for the entire time I was in hospital and I had to try and relearn to eat once I left. “For months after my surgery, I struggled to smile, as my mouth felt numb, but now I’m embracing my imperfections. I needed speech and language therapy. It was really swollen for a long time, but, eventually, I started to enjoy eating again.” Sunil Bhatia, surgeon at the Princess Royal Hospital, in Telford, said the surgery, in May, was a “success”.