Trending: Giving Stollery kids the chance to smile
Facial paralysis due to Moebius syndrome has meant that Piper was unable to make facial expressions for most of her life. Thanks to specialized care provided at the Stollery, Piper now can now communicate with her family – and everyone else around her – with a smile.
Originally aired July 14, 2025
Piper is eight years old, and she was born with Moebius syndrome: a neurological, non-progressive condition affects her cranial nerve. This syndrome causes Piper to have facial paralysis, differences in her eye movements and swallowing issues.
In particular, Piper’s facial paralysis affects her ability to smile.
“For kids that can’t smile or respond, they find that people move away from them,” says Dr. Jaret Olson, a Pediatric Plastic Surgeon at the Stollery Children’s Hospital. “We want to give them that ability to respond.”
Piper recently had a “smile surgery,”, or facial reanimation surgery, at the Stollery. Performed by Dr. Olson, the surgery involves taking a piece of the gracilis muscle in a patient’s thigh and essentially transplanting it into their face. Over time, the patient will be able to activate the nerves in their face to smile.
Typically, it could take six months before any facial movement is seen, but Piper’s parents began to notice a bit of movement around eight weeks after surgery. “To see a smile when she’s happy or as a response to something that she likes, it’s an amazing feeling to know that she can communicate with that with us,“ says Piper’s mom, Cassidy.
While the actual day of the surgery is a significant milestone, it’s just one step in the medical journey for patients like Piper. Her surgical team is supported in many ways: through the purchases of surgical equipment, the funding for operating rooms, clinics, rehabilitation teams, research and more. One thing that each of these supports have in common — funding provided by the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.
“We have funding for our occupational therapist.” says Dr. Olson, ”We’ve got one of the few occupational therapists in all of Canada who does facial nerve rehabilitation. You can get the nerve working to the muscle, but then when you have a therapist that works with [the patient] and does all the fine refinements, it can really make it work better.”
At the Stollery, it’s not just about a standard of care. It’s about excellence. Not only are the teams at the Stollery giving kids their smiles, they’re also making sure these smiles are the best they can be.
