In order to raise awareness about the difficulties of health issues, Chloe’s mother, Ashley McKnight, shared her daughter’s uplifting story with Good Morning America. McKnight of Oro-Medonte, Ontario, Canada, explained that her tiny girl had a tumor on her forehead containing blood vessels that grew “larger and larger” until it was clear that a medical professional needed to take action.
Chloe is now tumor-free after a three-hour surgery to remove a noncancerous growth from her forehead. According to McKnight, when Chloe was born, she had what appeared to be a minor scratch on her forehead. Regrettably, it did not heal and only got worse over time.
At only two months old, Chloe was diagnosed by a doctor with hemangioma. Hemangioma is composed of benign blood vessels that live under the surface of the skin and usually go away on their own; however, this was not the case for Chloe. Instead, it kept growing larger much to McKnight’s fear. All McKnight wanted was for her daughter to be healthy and happy.
“It didn’t look like it was reserving at all, and it just gradually got larger and larger,” said McKnight to Good Morning America. “At first, it was just really flat and red, and then it started to grow in height.”
McKnight took an extended maternity leave to prioritize the health of her newborn, Chloe.
“It’s basically a tumor of blood vessels that would bleed if she were to bump it,” the mom stated. “Always that was in the back of our minds, just making sure that she never hit it or anything.”
Strangers would stare at her whenever she left the house, even though McKnight and her two sons, aged three and five, treated Chloe just like any other young girl. Then, when Chloe was ready, McKnight and her spouse spent hours looking for a surgeon who could remove the noncancerous tumor without leaving much scarring.
The family was fortunately referred to Dr. Gregory Levitin, who is the director of vascular birthmarks and malformations at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. They found him via a Facebook group that’s specifically for families with children who have hemangiomas, as reported by Daily Mail.
In January, McKnight took Chloe to New York for surgery. Dr. Levitin told GMA that Chloe’s tumor was tough to remove because of its unusually large size.
“[The tumor] dropped and touched the muscle of the forehead, so preserving the muscle and allowing her to have facial expressions was important,” he stated. “We wanted the shortest scar possible, and so finding ways to manipulate the tissue to get the shortest scar possible was equally important.”
The surgery was a success for Chloe. She now has much more mobility than she had with the large tumor.
McKnight expected Chloe’s surgery to be more painful than it was, but she actually had more trouble with teething pains.
