Special Reports

ST. PAUL (WCCO) ― Next month Minnesota nice will stretch halfway around the world to help a man who won't show his face in public because he's embarrassed.

The man has a genetic disorder that's never been treated. Doctors at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul heard about his case and offered to help. Now he's taking a first step in a journey toward a new life.

You know how it works in Minnesota: A friend of a co-worker hears that a St. Paul nurse's -- husband's -- cousin needs help. Except, this time, the cousin is in Africa. And next month, thanks to friends and strangers and staff at St. Joseph's Hospital, that young man will be flying here for a second chance at life.

He lives half a world away, land locked on the continent of Africa in Zimbabwe, where life can be a struggle. It is a struggle made even more difficult by a genetic condition 22-year-old Tanderai Mandigumura has lived with since birth.

"We're told that he is a very sweet and gentle person who has lived his life, essentially, staying in," said neurosurgeon Dr. Eric Nussbaum. "Covering his face at all times essentially; with a scarf or multiple scarves because of the embarrassment of the deformity."

The left side of Mandigumura's face appears normal. The deformity has overtaken the right side of his face. Huge folds of excess skin hang loosely from his hairline to his neck, obscuring all facial features on the right side.

There is more extensive damage beneath the skin. As he examines CT scans he has been sent, the Twin Cities neurosurgeon sees hope to improve the young man's life.

Although the diagnosis is not official, Nussbaum said there are clues to its origin.

"Our suspicion, based on the imaging, is that this is most compatible with a form of neurofibromatosis, which is the disease that is supposed to have affected the elephant man," he said.

"The first thing that you notice is that the eye on the right side is dramatically, probably three-times, larger than the eye on the left side. In addition, there's tremendous destruction or possibly non-development of the right side of the skull base," said Nussbaum, as he points to a CT scan.

Such a complicated reconstruction will require a team of medical specialists to accomplish. Nussbaum first put such a team together last May, to save the life of an Ethiopian orphan.

In a complicated eight-hour procedure, they removed a bone destroying brain tumor from the young lady's skull. For Mandigumura's case will be every bit as challenging.

"In terms of the eye, in terms of the vision, we want to get a neuro-ophthalmologist, Dr. Andrew Harrison," said Nussbaum. "The other individual we are going to rely heavily on is Dr. Martin Lacey, who's a craniofacial, plastic reconstructive surgeon and in some ways he may have the toughest job."

The goal is to restore the young man's appearance so he can venture into public without being stared at; to give him quality of life and let him live normally. All of the doctors' work will be performed free.

St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul will also provide all technology, supplies and staff for free. The effort just to get Mandigumura on the road to recovery is heart warming.

"His relatives are putting together a cookbook and bake sales, and everything possible just to get him here," said Nussbaum. "So, everybody's really excited about the potential to try to help him."

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