Dr. Roland Hernandez will lead a collaborative effort to remove a debilitating tumor that’s the size of two tennis balls laid side by side from the face of Jacob Beneby, who has been living with the tumor for the past three decades.
Despite multiple surgeries, the tumor continues to grow from the inside and outside of Beneby’s jaw. It and now weighs approximately 10 pounds and has left him in critical pain and unable to function normally.
Hernandez, chief of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale and Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, has determined that a series of surgeries including jaw replacement will be required to fully eliminate the tumor.
Hernandez and his colleagues will remove the jaw and immediately reconstruct it with a custom titanium reconstruction plate donated by Stryker Corporation that will resuspend the tongue muscle and airway while giving Beneby a normal appearance.
Once Beneby has healed from this first surgery, definitive reconstructive surgery will harvest bones from other parts of his body to reconstruct his face.
The last phase of treatment will occur two years after the reconstructive surgery. Dental surgery will place dental implants where a denture can be fixated, enabling Beneby to chew food and have a smile again.
Beneby’s family has created a GoFundMe account to assist with the cost of medications and their stay while he recovers from surgery.
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