DATE: Monday, May 5, 1997                   TAG: 9705050050

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SONJA BARISIC, ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   62 lines

OPERATION SMILE PATIENT DIES AFTER BRAIN SURGERY IT'S THE 1ST DEATH OF 120 DEFORMED CHILDREN HELPED BY THE VOLUNTEER GROUP.

A 7-year-old Nicaraguan girl who underwent surgery to correct severe facial deformities in hopes of having a more normal life died Sunday after her brain swelled, her doctor said.

Milagros Villacorta was one of four children recently brought to Norfolk by Operation Smile, a volunteer medical organization that provides free plastic surgery for deformed children.

Milagros had been in stable condition after undergoing 12 hours of surgery Thursday.

But about 10 p.m. Friday, her brain swelled and pushed her brain stem into her spinal cord, which caused her to stop breathing, said Dr. William Magee, a plastic surgeon and co-founder of Operation Smile. She had been alert and talking just minutes before, he said.

Milagros was placed on life support even though she was brain dead, Magee said.

``We wanted to give her every chance possible to see if she would have any response at all, but she didn't,'' Magee said.

The life support system was shut down about 5:30 p.m. Sunday and Milagros died shortly afterward, he said.

Operation Smile has brought about 120 severely deformed children to the United States to have surgery, and this was the first death, Magee said.

``It's almost like one of your own family members has died,'' Magee said.

Magee said he wasn't certain what caused Milagros' brain to swell.

``As deformed as her face was, the only thing I can think of is that she had some structural problems with her brain function,'' he said.

Magee said Milagros' parents, who are in Nicaragua, had been told the surgery could be risky.

``It was a 12-hour surgery with her brain exposed,'' he said.

Since birth, Milagros' eyes had been twice as far apart as they should have been, a long ridge extended down the middle of her forehead, and her nose was flattened and split in two, with misshapen nostrils.

On Thursday, surgeons opened the area between her eyes and moved them closer together, did a bone graft to fill in the space, built a nose and moved her nostrils closer together.

``She never could go outside, she never had a birthday party, she never could socialize with kids because the teasing was merciless,'' Magee said.

A second child, Maureen Chemeli Kipkeino, 7, of Kenya, underwent similar surgery Friday and was doing well, Magee said. She suffered from birth defects similar to Milagros'.

Operation Smile plans to continue with surgeries on two more youths this week, Magee said. Doctors will create a urethra for an 11-year-old Kenyan boy who was born without one and operate on an 18-year-old from Vietnam who suffers from paralysis on the left side of his face and bone deficiency on the right side.

Their operations are being observed by about 45 doctors from 15 countries as part of an intensive three-week surgical training program. Operation Smile hopes the doctors will be able to perform the procedures themselves at home.

Operation Smile was founded in 1982 by Magee and his wife, Kathy. It has provided free medical care for 20,000 children in the United States and 21,000 in other countries. KEYWORDS: OPERATION SMILE

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