Maddie McDowell recovers from surgery

Published 5:00 pm Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Enterprise kindergartener Maddie McDowell is recovering at a rapid rate from her facial surgery and, if all goes well, will be headed home from Canada on Friday, according to the little girl’s grandmother, Doris Noland.

Maddie was operated on by a specialist in Toronto, Canada, on April 17, when a nerve and a muscle from her right thigh was transplanted in her face to give her more facial mobility. The operation took eight-and-a-half hours and will be repeated in September on the other side of Maddie’s face.

She was born with Mobius syndrome, which affects the facial nerve, among other medical problems.

“She went through the surgery amazingly well,” Noland said in a telephone report to the Chieftain Tuesday morning, while she was on her way back to Enterprise. “They usually have to stay in the hospital five to seven days, and we practically had to tie her down to keep her in for four.”

Most of those who go through the same surgery require “heavy duty pain medication,” according to Noland, but Maddie only took Tylenol. Her only complaint when asked was that her leg was sore.

“The doctors were amazed at how well she was doing,” Noland said.

Maddie is due to return to get checked out by her surgeon Thursday, and then will return home Friday.

Noland said the other day Maddie drew a picture of herself with a smile. “That’s the first time that’s ever happened,” she said.

The subject of two different community fundraisers to help with expenses, Maddie was accompanied to Canada by her parents, Matt and Amber McDowell, two little brothers Mason and Gunner, and maternal grandma Noland. Paternal grandma Marlene McDowell of Wallowa Lake joined the family in Canada last weekend.