FORT WORTH — Not long ago, birthmarks on two-year-old Zyyho'n and seven-year-old Nicole drew some pretty hateful words from strangers.
"It got to the point where I didn't even want to go out in public because it was just that bad," said Mel Harper, Ziyho'n's mom. "People would stare, and I just didn't want to deal with the whole public thing."
Shortly after her birth, Ziyho'n developed a large red growth on the tip of her nose that grew to the size of a golf ball. She was called everything from "Rudolph" to "clown face."
In Nicole's case, the red mark covered part of her right cheek, all the way up to her eye.
"She could see out, but she couldn't see down," recalled Natalie Bolinger, Nicole's mother.
Both children suffered forms of a vascular birthmark called hemangioma. Hemangiomas are an an abnormal buildup of blood vessels near the top of the skin. Sometimes they also develop beneath the skin or in internal organs.
In more common, mild cases it's called a "strawberry mark." Doctors see them all the time.
"They can get bigger until age two, and by five to seven they're gone," said Dr. Marjorie Milici, a Baylor University Medical Center pediatrician.
In serious cases, however, hemangiomas can be disfiguring or make daily functions difficult. That was the case for both Nicole and Ziyho'n.
"We had to put sterilized tape from her nostrils and tape it to her forehead because it was so heavy and she couldn't breathe, and she would start snorting," Harper said. "It was just bad."
"The rate Nicole's was growing and what it was doing to her vision, we were like, 'Is she going to lose her vision over this?'" Bolinger asked. "'Is it going to start growing into her sinus cavity?'"
Because most hemangiomas eventually go away, doctors told both Nicole and Ziyho'n's parents to be patient, for their girls' sakes.
"'We don't think a child develops their self-esteem until kindergarten,'" Bolinger said of what doctors told her. "'So, if it's not gone by kindergarten, we'll do something then.' And we were like, 'Could someone just please help us?'"
There is, in fact, a growing medical belief that early intervention can reduce possible damage caused by large hemangiomas — especially hemangiomas that develop on sensitive areas of the face.
When North Texas doctors refused to help, both Nicole and Ziyho'n's family were forced to go out of state for surgery to remove their deformities. Laser treatments and steroids were ineffective for both girls. They know some doctors will still say surgery is unnecessary.
"Words cannot express how happy I am with the surgery," Harper said. "I feel like a weight is lifted off my shoulders."
Ziyho'n's birthmark was completely removed in February. She might need another plastic surgery to correct the slight scarring on the tip of her nose.
Nicole, whose surgery was six years ago now, has a scar barely visible beneath her glasses.
"She's doing great," Bolinger said. "She's a beautiful little seven-year-old, second-grade girl."
Both mothers want to bring awareness to vascular birthmarks and advancing treatment options.
Now, the only name their little girls can be called is "beautiful."
E-mail: jstjames@wfaa.com
