Story highlights 3-year-old Melyssa Delgado Braga was diagnosed with a rare facial tumor

Doctors estimate that it weighed more than 5 pounds

Her tongue was "obliterated," but she's now regained full use

(CNN) Doctors in Louisiana removed a rare facial tumor from a Brazilian 3-year-old after her parents took to social media pleading for help.

Melyssa Delgado Braga of Sao Paulo is now recovering from the eight-hour surgery, conducted in December.

Little Melyssa's journey to the United States began when Dr. Celso Palmieri Jr., assistant professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, read a post on a Brazilian news site while reviewing publications from his home country. The child's family was seeking help to get their daughter to the United States for treatment.

"As I was reading more about her story, I realized our department could probably help her, and particularly Dr. Ghali and his department. I've seen him helping people so many times, so I took a screenshot of the child, and I texted it to him," Palmieri said of his colleague, Dr. G.E. Ghali.

Doctors estimated that Melyssa Delgado Braga's tumor weighed 5 pounds.

After an hour searching social media, he was able to get in contact with the parents, who speak only Portuguese.

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