Mayra Nacevilla-Chantasia, the 6-year-old Ecuadorean girl who underwent a charitable operation two weeks ago to correct deformities in her skull, was released from the University of Maryland Medical Center yesterday and is recovering on schedule.
Bundled up against the cold, Mayra returned to the Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore where she is to stay until she returns to Ecuador in March.
"She's doing fine," said Dr. Bruce Horswell, a maxillofacial surgeon who operated on Mayra's nose and eyes in a $100,000 procedure that capped a series of charitable acts by several groups. "She's right on target."
The 10-hour operation closed a hole in the base of Mayra's skull that had let the frontal lobe of her brain push through her nasal cavity. The condition is known as a frontonasal encephalocele.
Physicians also moved Mayra's abnormally spaced eyes closer together by removing part of her brow and shifting the remaining bones to the center of her face.
"I'm beautiful," were Mayra's first words when she saw herself in a mirror a few days after the operation, said Geovanni Obando, an Ecuadorean army captain who is chaperoning Mayra.
In four weeks, Mayra is scheduled to undergo a minor follow-up procedure at the hospital to tighten and remove the excess skin left by her protruding brain and to redefine her nose. She also may undergo an operation on her tear ducts to let eye moisture drain more easily.
For now, doctors are waiting for the skin around her nose to begin a normal process of shrinkage.
"The trick is to sit back and let things settle down," said Dr. Brian Flowers, who will reconstruct Mayra's nose.
Despite the need for more surgery, "she looks dramatically better," he said.
The impoverished Ecuadorean girl's operation was paid for by a number of groups, including the University of Maryland Medical Center, its Interdisciplinary Craniofacial Center, which specializes in facial deformities; and Ecuadent, a nonprofit group that sends Americans to Ecuador to care for the poor.
The Ronald McDonald House in Baltimore is subsidizing her stay in the United States. And members of Baltimore's Ecuadorean Social Club, which donated more than $700 toward Mayra's trip to the United States, have visited the girl in the hospital and donated toys and clothing.
Since her operation was publicized in The Sun, Mayra has received get-well cards, dolls, and even an offer of adoption from one couple.
"The outpouring of support for her has been very phenomenal," said Mary Elia, an office manager with the University of Maryland Interdisciplinary Craniofacial Center.
"It's almost like Santa Claus."
"She's very happy," said Tammy Fesche, a Westminster resident from Ecuador who founded Ecuadent and helped bring Mayra to Baltimore.
The girl has no memory of the operation and is eager to return to her family, an Indian couple who have cared for her since infancy, Captain Obando said. Mayra was abandoned by her biological parents when she was 5 months old.
"She wants to go home," Captain Obando said.