A premature baby's face was altered so much by a benign tumour that her nose was shifted to the one side of her face – affecting her eyesight.



Tot Roma Emilia Bertoli, now four months, was born at 34 weeks gestation in August 2025 and spent 52 days in the NICU at Clinic Hospital, Argentina.



On August 30, five days after she was born mum Eve Bertoli, 27, noticed a "little spot" on her nose which rapidly grew over three days to cover her cheek."



By September 9 it was confirmed as a haemangioma – a benign growth of blood vessels that typically appears as a red or purple lump on the skin.



They are sometimes called 'strawberry marks' as the surface of haemangioma may look like the surface of a strawberry.

Baby Roma began receiving Propranolol orally and had to be given a very small dose as she was so small.



Her haemangioma spread so quickly it began to affect the eyesight in her left eye, and the medication initially meaning she struggled to breathe due to a rise in her blood sugar.

Roma was discharged on 15 October but an infection in the tumour meant she was hospitalised for a further eight days and sent to a Children's Hospital on November 27.

An endoscopy was done when Roma was two months old which revealed an infection in her tumour and mum Eve had to remove blockages daily with paper tissue.

Now still receiving daily treatment and her tumour shrinking gradually, the hope is Roma's nose will also move to be realigned – with the possibility of plastic surgery to help with scarring in the future.



Eve, an English teacher, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, said: "There were difficult things that nowadays are hard to talk about."



"The thing is this little crust - I had to go to manual in the toilet with her and use paper to remove it."



"With my own hands in gloves I have to pick at the crust and try to take it out of her face. "

"Every single night after the bathroom we sat in bed and cried together."



"Nowadays with our diagnosis she has to continue receiving her medication and continue checking, and being aware of a bad smell or if it bleeds or if she's in pain we have to go to the hospital."



"In this case the medication was given to Roma as it was affecting the vision in her eye and her nose was completely in another side of her face."



"The idea is to erase it completely."



"With the infection she had its possible she may have to have surgery and will have scars in the future."



"In the future it may be bad for her so we will do surgery for aesthetic reasons."



"I'm just happy she's here at home"."



At the moment Roma receives 2mg of propranolol daily, and Eve has been sharing her story on social media since she was in NICU.



She also plans to stay off work un-paid to care for Roma until May this year.



"Sometimes I'll be at a bus stop or in the street and people look at her and think ‘oh god this mum is horrible' or ‘she is burnt'."



"Those things are difficult and all that comes with the future."



"I'm not a superhero I cry like everyone else."



"Sometimes I see her at home and see her playing with our dogs, her dad and step-sister and I start crying remembering all those days at the hospital waiting for her to come home"."



Eve says she gets messages from parents and grown-ups who had haemangiomas as children "all the time" on social media."



"When the videos went viral I had two options - put it on private or make a new one."



"I could stop or continue."



"We continue because a lot of parents started talking to me and sharing their experiences."



"I get beautiful messages and questions from parents - of course there is the other side of ‘why do you expose kid or post pics of your kid?'"



"I know writing to me with these thing it's because she has a haemangioma on her face otherwise they wouldn't write at all."



"It's just a birthmark and if it wasn't a birthmark she has to live with this."



"We are not going to change them but these people are raising the kids going to school with my kids."



"I know Roma's birthmark will disappear but what happens when babies have a birthmark that wouldn't disappear"."



Roma is set to have her next check up on January 26 with her dermatologist.