Four weeks ago, Osly St. Preux arrived in Baltimore from his home in Haiti wearing summer clothes and too-tight shoes and with an ugly, gnarled, cancerous mass - one that ended up weighing 3 1/2 pounds - growing out of his right armpit.
The 13-year-old was brought to the United States by Dr. Mojtaba Gashti, chief of vascular surgery at Union Memorial Hospital, who met the boy on a medical pilgrimage he takes to the impoverished nation each spring. Knowing he couldn't help him in Haiti, Gashti slogged through red tape, begged other doctors to volunteer their services and ultimately arranged for Osly and his mother to travel to Baltimore.
Two extensive surgeries later, Gashti and his family threw a party in Osly's honor yesterday at their Ellicott City home. The idea was to let the many people who have asked after him, prayed for him and donated money to his cause meet the teen with the high-wattage smile whom they have heard so much about.
"So many people have really helped and been concerned and asked about him," Gashti said. "I thought, 'Let's just celebrate his recovery.' "
Osly's mother, Natalie Pierre, first brought her son to see Gashti in 2005 at a small hospital run by nuns. They rode for hours on rutted roads to seek medical care for a small fluid-filled cyst that Osly had developed under his right armpit. It was the first time Osly had ever seen a doctor. He was 9. Gashti removed the cyst in a minor procedure, without anesthesia.
The boy was back in May when Gashti was on his annual trip. This time, Osly had a growth so large that Gashti knew he had to do something drastic. At best, Osly would lose his arm but more likely die if nothing was done. Shouldering a large chunk of the expense, Gashti brought Osly to Union Memorial.
"It's a big relief for her [Pierre] because if the doctor didn't bring him here and do what he did, he would have died in Haiti, because nobody there would have done that for him," said Jacqueline Nerette, a Haitian native who lives in Baltimore and has befriended the family in the past few weeks.
Nerette, who manages the glaucoma program for the Maryland Society for Sight, met Osly after she read about him in The Baltimore Sun the day before his surgery. Moved by the story, she called the hospital and volunteered to translate for Osly and his mother, a desperately needed service. When Osly was in the hospital, doctors called on her at all hours. In the weeks since, she has helped with things as seemingly minor as explaining how to use a microwave.
