Ed Port now in regular room after 12-hour surgery in Chicago

AUSTINTOWN

Ed Port of Austintown was in a regular room at St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago Saturday after a 12-hour surgery Wednesday to remove a tumor that covered the left side of his face.

Port, 41, had been in the intensive care unit through Friday. He wasn’t feeling well enough to talk when contacted in his hospital room Saturday afternoon.

He traveled to Chicago a week ago for the first of at least three surgeries to remove the tumor and reconstruct portions of his face that have been destroyed by the tumor.

The tumor is caused by neurofibromatosis type 2, a genetic disorder. Port was diagnosed as a child and underwent multiple surgeries between the ages of 7 and 19, but the tumors returned.

Since adulthood, he has had difficulty with insurance companies that he said wouldn’t cover the necessary surgeries. Those companies called the procedures cosmetic, Port said.