What started as a “small skin irritation” between her eyes became a major medical challenge for baby Noor Nunez.

Just weeks after Noor was born in 2018 in Kuwait, her parents noticed a small red spot between her eyes that kept growing instead of fading. Doctors diagnosed it as a hemangioma — a common benign tumor formed by an abnormal cluster of blood vessels that often appears in the first weeks of life. They prescribed topical ointment and assured the family it would resolve on its own.

Instead, the growth continued to enlarge. By the time Noor approached her first birthday, the bright red, protruding mass measured about 2.5 centimeters across. It sat directly between her eyes, distorting the bridge of her nose and obstructing a significant portion of her visual field. Local treatment options proved insufficient, and the family grew increasingly concerned about both her vision and the social impact of the highly visible lesion.

Noor’s father, Joe Nunez (an American contractor working in Kuwait), and mother Rania Al-Mutairi searched internationally for specialized care. They connected with Dr. Gregory Levitin, a vascular birthmark specialist and head-and-neck surgeon at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. In July 2019, just around Noor’s first birthday, the family traveled more than 6,000 miles to New York for surgery.

Dr. Levitin performed a delicate operation lasting roughly two and a half hours. Because of the lesion’s depth and location near critical structures, he was able to remove more than 80 percent of the hemangioma while carefully preserving facial symmetry and minimizing blood loss. Residual redness was expected to fade further with time and possible laser treatment. After the procedure, Noor’s appearance improved dramatically, and the obstruction to her vision was largely resolved.

Infantile hemangiomas are the most common vascular tumors of infancy. Most remain small and involute spontaneously, but a minority grow rapidly in functionally or cosmetically sensitive areas such as the face and eyelids, requiring early specialist intervention to prevent complications including vision impairment.

Noor’s case illustrates both the potential seriousness of untreated facial hemangiomas and the difference that timely access to experienced vascular anomaly specialists can make.

Sources:

• Reporting from Mount Sinai, New York Daily News, PEOPLE, Fox News, TODAY, and related coverage (2019–2020) detailing Noor Nunez’s hemangioma diagnosis, growth, travel from Kuwait to New York, and successful surgery by Dr. Gregory Levitin in July 2019.