Facial Paralysis Surgery Creates Brand New Smiles
A new surgery is giving hope to the family of a little girl suffering from facial paralysis.
Two-year-old Dasha Mead was born with paralysis on the left side of her face - a condition doctors say is similar to that of a stroke victim.
Dr. Ellliot Rose says Dasha's condition is "affecting her ability to close her eyes, to breathe, to smell, to chew, to swallow, to smile."
Jim and Julea Mead adopted young Dasha from Kazakhstan, and have never seen her with a full smile. "We would just love to see that bright smile just completely light up her face," says Julia Mead, her adoptive mother.
Last Wednesday, doctors at Mount Sinai hospital in New York prepped Dasha for a remarkable surgery, in which they took healthy muscle from her thigh, and transplanted it into the paralyzed part of her face.
Ultimately the surgery will allow for facial movement, and a full smile, something that she had not yet experienced.
The complicated procedure can take as long as ten hours, but the results, if all goes well, will last a lifetime.
In November, CBS 2 documented a similar case in which 30-year-old Geoffrey Woodcock underwent facial reanimation surgery because the left side of his face was paralyzed. Like Dasha, Geoffrey had never experienced the joy of a real smile, but the pain from that disability lasted well into adulthood.
"You know when I was a kid, I'd look in the mirror [and wonder] what would it be like if I [could smile]. I always wanted to see what I would look like," Geoffrey told CBS 2.
Facial reanimation surgery required doctors to take a muscle from Geoffrey's temple and move it to a different portion of his face.
In the operation, Dr. Roger Simpson, a surgeon at the Long Island Plastic Surgery Group, cut one end of the muscle and then tunneled it under the skin, attaches it to the corner of Geoffrey's mouth. When the muscle was moved, it left a hollow space around the temple, so Simpson took skin from a human cadaver and implanted it to fill up that space. He also inserted a gold weight into the upper eyelid so Geoffrey can close his eye.
"I feel like my life is starting all over again you know. Brand new start," Geoffrey said after the surgery. "It's just kinda cool to have that side of my face, because for 30 years it wasn't there."
As time goes by the old temple muscle may stretch a bit, so Geoffrey may need more operations to adjust it. This certainly isn't a cure for the facial paralysis, but for Geoffrey, it's the next best thing.
"You're returning dignity to these patients," Dr. Simpson said.