Greta Van Susteren, Mayo Clinic Give Liberian Orphan Critical Care

In October, Greta Van Susteren, formerly an anchor for Fox News before signing on with MSNBC in January, began publicly asking for donations for an orphan in Liberia. The boy, known as "Sampson," suffers from a severe deformity that covers 100 percent of one eye and partly covers the other.

Susteren said Sampson's mother "has never been in the picture" and his father died more two years ago from Ebola. "He is now facing total blindness (see his eyes) but you and I together could stop that from happening," Susteren wrote on the GoFundMe site she created for him in the fall, titled "Help Sampson get surgery!"

Susteren first learned of Sampson after she tweeted about her trip to Liberia to help Samaritan's Purse, a Christian humanitarian aid organization, to dedicate a new hospital:

Liberia, as you know, has been hit very hard by ebola (thousands died) and the surviving people, besided broken hearts, have great medical needs with few resources.Someone living in the USA saw my tweet about my pending trip to Liberia and tweeted me asking if I would help some boy. Some boy? Who? I don't know how it happened, but the tweet, among my thousands of tweets, caught my attention and I replied with something like "tell me more." Next I was tweeted a picture of this boy...and like you, I was hooked. How could I not want to help him? I wanted to help...but how? How could I possibly find this child in the nation of Liberia? I asked the person who tweeted me the pic, where is the boy?

Staff at Samaritan's Purse found Sampson in Monrovia, Liberia in a jungle village, Susteren said.

"Sampson's condition had captured my heart."

He was eventually brought to the United States, but Susteren needed donations to help pay for his surgery. "I am not a doctor, but I sure know a problem when I see it and Sampson has one."

The GoFundMe eventually raised $155,953 of $150,000 goal.

In early January, it was learned that Sampson would have his surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

On Thursday, the results of Sampson's MRI were in, and all the specialists at the Mayo agreed that Sampson has a genetic condition called "neurofibromatosis."

Mayo officials say Sampson has a large benign facial mass called neurofibroma plexiform, a genetic condition that is incurable. The tumor, however, can be partially removed, according to the Mayo doctors.

"This will require a multidisciplinary approach with several surgical specialists in plastic surgery, ophthalmology, and otolaryngology," Susteren said on Facebook:

Sampson has more appointments and testing to be scheduled with these specialists and perhaps others. They will together review the medical data and formalize the best plan for his surgery. This is not a quick process but he is being seen by some of the best specialists in the world at Mayo Clinic. The surgery is likely to be in one to two stages.

The doctors told him they had seen other patients just like him, and Sampson, who has struggled with homesickness and people not used to his condition in Minnesota, smiled and was relieved.

Susteren and Sampson celebrated by playing his favorite PlayStation game and enjoying fried rice, Sampson's favorite "American food."

Image via GoFundMe