Man's Face Eaten Away by Fungus

[Guest guest]

http://www.myinky.com/ecp/local_news/article/0,1626,ECP_745_984165,00.html

A man with a new face

Valentine's Day is extra special for couple

By RYAN REYNOLDS Courier & Press staff writer 464-7686 or

ryanr@...

MACEO, Ky. - More than any words on a marriage certificate or vows at a

wedding ceremony, the love between Mark and Tatum is apparent, alive

and strong.

He is 45. She is 43. They live together in a small house near a collection

of lakes just east of Owensboro, Ky. At night, they sleep in a train

caboose-turned-bedroom that sits at the back of their home.

They hold hands, listen to movies and University of Kentucky basketball on

television, and miss each other immensely when they are apart.

For Valentine's Day, Mark is going to take into town and let her pick

out her own present. Not so much because he's not good at surprises, but

because he can no longer see the woman he first met 14 years ago, when

Tatum was " a hot chick who came in looking to put in an application where I

worked. "

And because he can't see, he figures it wouldn't be a good idea to select

her gift alone.

" I might come back with a rabbit in a hat or something, " Mark Tatum said.

Not that would mind much. To her, the best gift in the world is that

the man she loves is still alive to celebrate Valentine's Day, though each

day is a romantic holiday for these two.

Two years ago Thursday, on Valentine's Day 2000, Mark Tatum underwent the

first of several surgeries by doctors trying to remove a flesh-eating fungus

from his face. For this holiday, he'll wear a new prosthetic face out on

their date.

A former security guard who has struggled to regain his health the past 24

months, Mark Tatum said he feels " pretty " again. The fungus came quietly

into Mark Tatum's life, first letting itself be detected through a terrible

headache that sent him to a hospital emergency room, a weeklong coma and the

loss of sight in one eye.

" It was rainy outside, and I came in and told my wife my head was hurting

real bad, and I wanted to lay down, " he said. " I woke up the next morning,

and it hurt worse, and they took me to the hospital. "

Doctors diagnosed his condition as mucormycosis, a life-threatening

infection that spreads with frightening speed. The rare infection is caused

by fungi sometimes found in dust and soil. The fungus infects blood vessels,

restricts blood flow to the nose, mouth and eventually to the brain.

It is still unknown how Tatum contracted the disease.

Decay was beginning to set in on the inside of his nasal cavities and the

roof of his mouth and doctors gave him two options, Tatum said. Either he

could receive pain medication and go home to die, or doctors could try an

experimental surgery that would remove most of his face, but allow him a

chance to live. Tatum chose life.

Surgeons removed soft tissue and bone from just below his eyebrows down to

the roof of his mouth, successfully cutting out the fungus.

Tatum suffered small strokes after the procedure. But he can walk today,

with the help of a cane or a walker.

" He likes the cane better. He doesn't care much for the walker. He's

stubborn that way, " his wife said.

Initially, in the time between when Tatum had a good deal of his face

removed and before the application of the prosthesis, he usually ventured

into public with sunglasses covering the hole.

" I didn't mind explaining to people what had happened, " he said. " I would

rather have them ask and find out than just stare at me. "

Later, as doctors at the University of Louisville prepared to make a

prosthetic face to cover the cavity, surgeons removed part of a bone from

Tatum's leg and used it as a base for a new hard palate for his mouth. That

enabled him to again talk and eat.

Doctors then built a base using eight implants to anchor the framework for

the prosthesis. They attached several small, powerful magnets to the

framework, which match up to the magnets installed on the back of the

acrylic prosthesis.

The new face, covered with silicon similar to Tatum's skin tone, also

features his own body hair as eyebrows and brown eyes that match his

original eye color. He is also growing a beard to help the prosthesis blend

in with his face.

Usually, Tatum wears sunglasses to give him a more natural look. Otherwise,

he said, " people think I'm staring at them. I don't blink. "

Tatum said she has to pry herself away to go to work each morning at

an Owensboro plant nursery. She leaves him with a walkie-talkie to talk to

her mother in case of an emergency, and an overprotective great dane named

Blue.

" I turn the TV on and look out the windows " to pass time, he said. " I can't

see anything, but it's just an old habit. I can tell what kind of day it is

by sticking my hand out the door and feeling the air. "

Mark Tatum has been trying to learn Braille, the alphabet of raised bumps

used by the blind, and he's also working at getting better on the computer.

It uses audio commands to complete tasks.

" I want to go back to work someday, " he said. " I figure if I can get good on

the computer, I will have a skill someone will want. "

His drive to earn a paycheck has a story to it, as well. He and his wife owe

an Owensboro pharmacy about $3,000 for prescription medication.

" We eventually stopped getting medicine there because we didn't know when we

could pay them back, " Tatum said. " They said they didn't mind, but we

did. We want to see them get their money. They've been good to us. "

Mark Tatum said others have been good to him, too. He praised the work of

the nurses, doctors and surgeons at the University of Louisville, as well as

his family. He said he's also thankful to a higher power for his second

chance.

" I'm lucky enough to be here, so God must have something planned for me to

do, " he said. " It may take me a while to figure out what it is, but I'll

come up with something. "

February 13, 2002