ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 25, 1996 TAG: 9604250074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES
SOURCE: JEFF WILSON ASSOCIATED PRESS
THE SURGERY'S OVER, and the doctors say Chelsey is very likely to get the present she wants most in the world.
After a delicate 10-hour operation, surgeons emerged all smiles and said they hoped their young patient soon will be able to flash a similar grin.
Seven-year-old Chelsey Thomas, who was born with a perpetually glum look because she had no nerves to help her facial muscles form a smile, underwent the surgery Tuesday to give the right corner of her mouth a lift. The same surgeons worked on her left side Dec. 15.
It will take at least eight weeks to learn if it's an ear-to-ear success. Chelsey hopes to be able to smile by her 8th birthday June 29.
Surgeons say the prognosis is good.
`As you saw, we all came in smiling,'' Dr. Avron Daniller said at a news conference after the surgery.
``If this procedure works, it will work forever,'' said Dr. Avron Daniller. ``Chelsey will be smiling 20, 30, and 40 years from now.'' The girl was listed in good condition Wednesday in the intensive care unit at Kaiser Permanente Hospital.
``We're very optimistic the other side is going to work as well and she'll have a full smile,'' said her father, Bob Thomas.
Doctors removed muscle and nerve from her leg and transplanted them to the right side of her face. After the surgery, they stretched the muscles in the corners of her mouth upward.
The corners of Chelsey's mouth had sagged because she was born without the nerve that transmits commands to facial muscles. The condition, called Moebius syndrome, afflicts about 1,000 Americans.
Chelsey had some bonuses from the first procedure: Her left cheek has a rosy glow and there's a distinct dimple in the center of it.
Dr. Ronald Zuker, a Canadian surgeon who pioneered the procedure and flew to Los Angeles to lead the surgery, said Chelsey must keep to a regimen of exercises in front of a mirror to learn how to train her facial muscles.
The $70,000 cost of both surgeries, which are not considered cosmetic, is covered by the family's health insurer.
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