The Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation

By Camille Condon, Director, International Office, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
and  Mary Leach, Director of Public Affairs, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary

Twelve year-old Andrea smiles as she tries on eyeglasses in Mass. Eye and Ear’s Optical Shop. The fact that she can wear glasses at all is impressive—up until a few weeks ago the girl had a tumor behind her right eye that had grown to the size of a large grapefruit, destroying the eye and pushing it out of the socket. Doctors from her home country of Romania told her family she had an inoperable tumor and gave her just months to live.

The benign tumor continued to grow for eight years with no help in sight until Andrea’s teacher contacted Dr. Aaron Fay’s office at Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary and asked for help. The Romanian community raised funds to bring Andrea, accompanied by her father, here for treatment. During several surgeries, Dr. Fay removed the tumor, reconstructed her orbital area and implanted a prosthetic eye.

The care was donated by the Hospital
and Dr. Fay in honor of the late Ray Tye.

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By Terri Carlson

Maryan with Elmo

I want to tell you about a very special little girl, Maryam. She was born in Iraq, with a deforming germ cell tumor on her face and because of her deformity, her father put her in a room, without food or water, to let her die. Her mother Rasha, a very brave young woman in a country where women have no say, took the child home to her family and tried to find medical help for the baby. When Maryam’s father learned of this he went to the hospital and tore up the baby’s birth records so Rasha could not take her out of the country.

Left with no alternative, and watching her child suffer and slowly die, Rasha brought Maryam to where U.S. Soldiers were stationed; asking for medical help. They made it possible for Rasha to seek help at The King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan. The KHCC took great care of Maryam but if her life was to be saved she would have to receive medical treatment in the United States. However, her chance of survival was extremely poor and no hospital would risk taking her case. (more…)

By Laurence M. Epstein, M.D.

Eileen Tye and Al-Juboori with Dr. Laurence Epstein

Nadia Al-Azzawi, a 50 year old woman from Baghdad, suffered for 3 years with recurrent fevers, sweats and weight loss.  She was chronically ill, unable to work and trying to raise three children with no help. In 2003, she was having many black-out spells and a physician implanted a cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in her chest to control her heartbeat. The device failed and was replaced 2 years later.  The implant site became red, swollen and tender, but the physician who placed the device had fled the country.  Ms. Al-Azzawi sought help at the local Shiite hospital and it is a sad fact that because she was Sunni, the hospital refused to treat her.

The infected pocket worsened and the device finally eroded through the skin. Finally, an ambulance driver cut the wire attaching the device to the heart, allowing the wire to retract into her body. For more than 2 years she lived with the chronically infected wire coiled inside her heart. Al-Azzawi was told to seek care in other countries, but the costs of travel and surgery were prohibitive; they could not afford it. “There was no one to help us”, said her husband, Moaiad Al-Juboori. “We saw her in pain, and we didn’t know what to do”. Through a friend, they connected with Simona Shuster of BWH International, and she took it from there, contacting The Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation, which immediately agreed to cover this patient’s medical costs. (more…)

By Eileen Tye

For security reasons I will not use his real name; let’s call him Mohammed. This case was brought to the attention of The Ray Tye Medical Aid Foundation by a nurse, who in working as an international public health consultant in Afghanistan came to know Mohammed and his story. Through her frequent communica-
tions, we learned the stunning details of the case and we embraced the urgency of finding treatment for Mohammed. This kind, caring nurse would become the boy’s Angel during the trying times he would face on his journey to find a new life. (more…)

As a little girl in Poland, Anna Wuszter could not have guessed nor imagined what life had in store for her as a young woman, yet the inconceivable happened. In the years when this beautiful, vibrant new mother should have been enjoying the merriment and amusing diversions of young adulthood, she was instead fighting for her life.

When Anna was 25 years old, she was diagnosed with a highly aggressive form of cancer known as sarcoma odontogenes mandibulae. The cancer had originated at the base of a tooth and quickly spread to her salivary glands, tongue and lower jaw. In three short months she was debilitated and in such extreme pain that not even morphine could relieve her suffering. Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy finally brought the cancer itself under control but by then Anna had lost half of her face.

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