CLEVELAND Nigerian girl recovers after removal of tumor

The tumor took up more than half of the right side of the girl's brain.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A Nigerian woman couldn't be happier that she and her daughter traveled more than 6,000 miles to spend their holidays in an intensive care unit.
"I must confess to you, this is my best Christmas," Mariam Ameh said the night before the holiday.
Ameh's 13-year-old daughter, Faridah, has been recovering well after journeying to Cleveland's Rainbow Babies & amp; Children's Hospital, where doctors removed a brain tumor the size of a grapefruit.
"We've seen a lot of big tumors," said Dr. Alan Cohen, who performed the operation Friday. "We've never seen one this size."
The tumor took up more than half the right side of Faridah's brain, causing the basketball and soccer player's left arm to snake oddly when she held it out. About a month ago, she started dragging her left leg when she walked.
Nigerian doctors told Ameh that her daughter's tumor, which surrounded major arteries in her brain, was life-threatening.
Help from Americans
Tami Shobe, the founder of an organization that matches sick children with American doctors and flies them to the United States, heard about Faridah.
Children's Medical Missions West often takes months, but Shobe, of Waynesfield in northwest Ohio, immediately set a plan in motion to get Faridah to America.
Dr. Cohen agreed to perform the surgery for free.
As the Amehs were working to secure visas and set up the surgery, 71 of Faridah's schoolmates were killed in a Dec. 10 plane crash as they traveled home for the holidays. The pupils at Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja, Nigeria, had helped raise money for Faridah.
Mariam Ameh and her daughter arrived in Cleveland nine days after the crash.
Shortly after her 12-hour surgery, Faridah already was wiggling her toes and sticking out her tongue, Dr. Cohen said. The tumor was benign.
Mariam Ameh said her experience in the United States has taught her about generosity.
"That is the joy of Christmas," she said.