Man with facial tumour nearly the size of his HEAD recovers in hospital after top Spanish surgeon performs life-saving operations

FAMOUS Spanish surgeon Pedro Cavadas has removed this giant tumour from the face of a patient in a series of life-saving operations.

The medic met Kenyan Mike Keoch, 36, four years ago after he had failed to get help in his home country.

Four ops over the past five years – the last in October – to remove the semi-malignant tumour and rebuild the African’s face saved the dad-of-three from an early death.

And today Pedro – who performed the world’s first double leg transplant – revealed he has agreed to take care of Mike’s three daughters and wife should anything go wrong in the future because “he is now a friend, not just a patient.”

Mike, whose youngest daughter was born between his string of ops, has even named the little girl Carmen after Pedro’s mum.

The patient’s tumour began to appear in 2001 and grew so quickly it was soon larger than his head.

It became so large that his nose and mouth were pushed to one side and he lost his left eye.

The patient travelled to India to try to find a solution but medical interventions there made the problem worse rather than better.

The doctor explained: "The size of the tumour scared doctors in India, and in that country there are good hospitals."

Pedro – who works out of Manises Hospital in Valencia – agreed to take the case on after specialists in Africa said the only way of removing the tumour was to cut away half of Mike’s face.

The medic explained: "He was at the limit of being operated on, but the alternative for Mike was to die miserably and any option was better than that."

Now – after a series of four operations in 2011, 2013 and 2015 and October this year – Mike is almost unrecognisable.

Pedro's team had to remove what remained of his left eye and part of his jaw, which is where the tumour had been regenerating itself.

Now Mike – who lost both his legs in a childhood accident – is set to return to Kenya on Sunday to continue in his job as a motorbike taxi driver.

Pedro said: "We could never remove his right eye because he would not be able to take care of his family.

"In addition, he is my friend and I made a pact with him – if we were not able to control the tumour, I would take care of his family."

The surgeon also revealed today that his patient would have died three years ago if he hadn’t received these operations.

“His tumour was massive, far bigger than his head,” Pedro said.

“Although we don’t know for sure whether the tumour has been cured or not, we are prolonging his life.”

Mike, who at one point ended up living on the street because of his condition, said he now felt “strong, happy and enormously grateful.”

Pedro, 51, is known for directing world-pioneering interventions, such as one in which he kept alive a patient’s arm by temporarily implanting it on his leg.

In another incredible op, he converted a one-handed patient’s right hand into a left hand in order to move it from his right arm to his left one.

And in July 2011 he performed a world-first double leg transplant on a 20-year-old male amputee, spending 10 hours in the operating theatre.

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