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on tlc Ed Port hopes film helps raise awareness, funds
Photo
Port, 2011
Photo
Port, 2012
By Denise Dick
Austintown
A township man with a disease that causes large facial tumors hopes the airing of a documentary about his struggle brings more awareness to the disease.
“My Giant Face Tumor” relays the story of Ed Port, as well as a woman in Thailand. They both suffer from neurofibromatosis.
It will air at 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. Wednesday on cable-television channel TLC.
Both Port and the woman underwent surgery by Dr. McKay McKinnon in Chicago.
Port hopes the film “brings more awareness to neurofibromatosis and, hopefully, more research dollars.”
Before the surgeries, the tumor obscured much of the left side of Port’s face — limiting both his hearing and vision.
Dr. McKinnon has operated three times on Port with a fourth surgery scheduled for Nov. 29.
The documentary crew filmed Port’s second surgery and also visited with him before and after his first surgery.
“I haven’t seen any of the film,” he said. “I have no idea what people will see. When everyone else sees it for the first time, I’ll be seeing it for the first time, too.”
Dr. McKinnon operated on Port the first time in June 2011. Most of the large tumor was removed during the 12-hour surgery. Port lost a lot of blood and spent time in intensive care.
During the second surgery in October 2011, which lasted 10 hours, the surgeon removed smaller tumors and worked to reshape some of Port’s facial features.
The third surgery last March took about six hours, and Dr. McKinnon worked on Port’s eyelid and tried to make the facial features on Port’s left side more even with the right.
While his recovery was long, Port returned last April to his job at a local call center.
Since the surgeries, however, his vision in both eyes has worsened.
The Lions Club in Austintown paid for a pair of eyeglasses for Port.
“I don’t need glasses in order to drive, but I do need glasses in order to read and in order to do my job on the computer,” he said.
In the fourth surgery scheduled for next month, Dr. McKinnon will concentrate on Port’s left eye and ear.
“He’ll be taking two pieces of bone, the size of a medium-to-large man’s fingernail, off my skull,” Port said. “He’ll be putting one piece behind the left eye and another under it to push it out and hold it up so it’s more uniform with the right eye.”
The surgeon also will operate on Port’s left ear, attempting to open the ear canal and also remove smaller tumors from the back of his head.
Port notified his thousands of Facebook friends about the television documentary, and more than 200 have said they will watch.