Help give Violet a smile!

I’d like you to meet my lovely, great-niece, Violet, a sweet and loving, five year old girl, who was born with facial palsy on the right side of her face. She is a very outgoing child and although she accepts that she was born special with a facial difference, she has occasionally expressed concern about how her smile is different from everyone else's.

Here’s her story:
Her 7th cranial nerve, which controls the forehead, eyelid, and smile muscles, did not develop in utero, so she has always had a half smile and her eye doesn't fully close or usually even blink.

 

Her family, her mom, dad, and three brothers (with another sibling coming soon!), moved to the United States from Canada last year, so she could receive the cross facial nerve grafting surgery at Riley Childrens' Hospital in Indianapolis, in hopes that she would have the opportunity to have a full, normal smile, and functioning eyelid. She must have this surgery now, her doctors say, because of her young age-there is a much higher success rate than if they wait even one more year.

The first stage of the surgery was in October of 2021, where her team of plastic surgeons harvested a nerve from her left leg, attached it to the functioning 7th cranial nerve on the left side of her face, and placed it under the skin to the right side of her face. She has been cleared to receive the second stage of this surgery this July, where doctors will harvest a section of muscle from her right inner thigh and attach it to the implanted nerve from the first stage.

 

The goal of the second surgery, the cross facial nerve grafting, is to have any signals that the brain is sending to the functioning side of the face also go to the non-functioning, palsy side; essentially mirroring the movement to the palsy side. Violet will have to go through therapy after this second stage to train her face to receive the signals. We are expecting that she will have movement before Christmas of this year, if all goes well! This will be monumentally life-changing for Violet and her family.

 

Thank you for reading about Violet's story and please share this fundraiser to help raise money for Violet's surgery. Violet's medical insurance does not cover this surgery, so we are extremely grateful for any donations and also ask that you keep Violet in your thoughts and prayers.