San Fernando Valley : Girl to Receive Second ‘Smile’ Surgery

She passed the dreaded blood test and is now free of fever blisters so all systems are go for 7-year-old Chelsey Thomas, who is scheduled today to undergo a second daylong round of surgery that will literally put a smile on her face.

Chelsey, of Palmdale, was born with a rare medical condition, known as Moebius syndrome, that causes partial paralysis of the facial muscles. As a result, Chelsey has never been able to smile. It didn’t bother her until about a year ago, when kids started teasing the second-grader about her looks.

When her parents learned that the expensive and lengthy microvascular surgeries required to correct the condition were covered under their insurance policy, Chelsey’s dream of someday smiling became a reality.

But in November, just before her first scheduled surgery at Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills Medical Center, doctors noticed a small fever blister on her upper lip. The virus jeopardized the success of the delicate surgery, which takes place under microscopes with tiny instruments--some thinner than a single strand of hair. The surgery was postponed.

Doctors waited a month and tried again. In February, Chelsey felt the new facial nerve and muscle, transplanted from her thigh to her left cheek, quiver for the first time. By March, she had developed what her mother, Lori, called a “half-smile.”

Today, surgeons plan to operate on the right side of Chelsey’s face, extracting another muscle and nerve from her thigh and transplanting them into her cheek.

“We’re right on schedule,” Thomas said. “If all goes well, Chelsey should be smiling right around her 8th birthday” in June.