a nose or eyes is preparing for her final operation which will give
her a real nose.
Cassidy Hooper, 16, will undergo three surgeries at Levine Children's
Hospital in Charlotte over the course of two weeks that will create a
nose from cartilage and bone taken from her skull.
And the good news has left the energetic teen ecstatic because for the
first time she will be able to smell and breathe through her own nose.
When she was born, her condition left doctors baffled, especially
since had no other medical problems and leads a healthy life.
'Her heart and brain are normal,' said her mother, kindergarten
teacher, Susan Hooper to ABC News.
'Nothing else is going on with her.'
The inspirational teenager has been going through skin graft surgeries
to adapt her face since she was 11 years old and is pleased to be
entering the final straight.
'I'll have a real nose like everyone else's,' said Cassidy.
Her surgeon, Dr. David Matthews has worked for the past five years
expanding her face to create a bony opening, that has now developed
into a bony opening, that is now waiting for the cartilage graph to be
placed over.
In the past, Cassidy used prosthetic eyes, but since they cost $5,000
each, the Hooper's could not afford to keep replacing them as their
daughter grew.
'Insurance didn't pay one cent,' said Susan, 42. 'We had already
started the process to do her nose, moving her eyes closer together
and having her skull reshaped.
We were not going to pay for it then have to pay again.'
Experts who spoke to ABC News explained how the surgery to replace
Cassidy's nose will be completed.
'The nose is a little like the ear — what you see isn't functional,'
said Dr. Sherard A. Tatum III, director of facial and reconstructive
surgery at Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y.
'A lot of people have noses they lost to trauma and cancer and breathe
fine and have a sense of smell. The nose is something we expect to see
in its conventional place and it's good to put glasses on, but it's
not 100 percent necessary.'
'The soft tissues that make up the inside and the outside skin and
mucus membrane don't have a lot of strength to stick out of the face
like the nose does. You can't just slap some skin up there and make it
look like a nose.'
Cassidy's doctors have taken a layered approach – placing the inside
membrane first, then using cartilage and bone from her skull create a
nose structure and then cover it with skin.
The hardest part for Cassidy has been overcoming the social difficulties.
She has been attending Governor Morehead School, a specialist school
for the blind since the fifth grade and deals with taunts from
children well.
'Honestly, there's been a bit of teasing, but not more than any other
child on a regular day,' said her mother.
Active and confident, Cassidy is involved with track and field and has
even taken up the winter sport of curling.
She dreams of being a radio broadcaster and has recently appeared on
the airwaves at her local radio station.
'It was the first time and I actually did my own radio broadcast for
an hour — I took over,' said Cassidy.
'I have been listening to radio since I was younger, and I like how
they do it. I am interested in jingles.'
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