City woman coming home after face surgery

An Invercargill woman whose face was reconstructed at Dunedin Hospital went home yesterday, and her husband couldn’t wait to give her a cuddle.

Christine Brown had a 16-hour face reconstruction procedure last Tuesday and has been recovering at the hospital for the past eight days.

Her husband, Lee Brown, speaking yesterday morning, said she was to be discharged in the afternoon and he would drive her home to Invercargill.

‘‘I can’t wait to get her home and have a cuddle in bed,’’ he said before picking her up from Dunedin.

Surgeon Matthew Leaper said the operation was one of the most challenging of his career, but it had gone well.

He was optimistic the side of Brown’s reconstructed face, which had been sagging before the surgery, would stay up.

‘‘It all looks quite stable. It’s a long road ahead but I am optimistic,’’ he said on Friday.

Lee Brown said his wife’s face was still swollen and she was experiencing some numbness.

‘‘The specialist said that [numbness] can take from six to 12 months to go away.’’

She would return to Dunedin Hospital to have more work done on her eyelid and she would be wearing an eye patch for a while, her husband said.

She had now seen herself in the mirror, following the surgery, and was ‘‘definitely pleased with what they have achieved’’.

She had some concerns about the swelling, but the swelling was to expected and would go away, he said.

‘‘They haven’t removed the packing from her ear, but once they do she will be able to hear from that ear ... she has never heard from it.’’

Surgeons had predicted her leg may be sore after the operation, after an 11cm piece of bone was taken from it to make a cheekbone for her.

However, she had not complained about any leg soreness, her husband said.

Brown was born with neurofibromatosis, which causes multiple tumours to grow on nerves in her body, including her face.

When aged 7, a massive tumour dragging her face down was operated on for the first time, and she had undergone 18 operations over the years.

The first 17 had been unsuccessful in be aligning her face, but the 18th operation, eight days ago, had so far worked.

The family was looking forward to getting her home but, souring her husband’s mood somewhat, he found that vandals had attacked his van, which had been parked in the driveway of their Invercargill home, for the last two nights in a row.

He had been home on both occasions but had not woken up.

Fog lights on the van had been smashed and ‘‘x ‘‘ marks had been scratched into the panels, as had the number ‘‘13’’ he said.

He said he had no enemies and had no idea who could have done the damage but believed it may have been related to the family being in the media in recent weeks.

He was unimpressed, culprits were scum. saying the