MIAMI – For three years, Local 10 News has followed the story of a South Florida girl born with a disfiguring birth defect, and this latest installment brings an uplifting update to save her vision.
Since the birth of her daughter Luna in 2019, Carolina Fenner has been on a singular mission which involved traveling all the way to Russia for treatments to remove a potentially cancerous growth on Luna’s face.
While laser surgery was able to address a good portion of the giant melanocytic nevus, it also led to severe scarring of her upper and lower eyelids.
Dr. Thomas Johnson with Bascom Palmer Eye Institute immediately stepped in.
“The left lid is actually not in a good position -- it’s turning out and the lid doesn’t close at all,” he said.
Johnson said if the eyelid doesn’t close completely, the eye itself will dry out, which can lead to a host of serious complications.
“It can develop an ulceration, and the ulceration can become infected and the patient can develop corneal scarring that could cause permanent vision loss,” he said.
And if an infection became internal, Luna could actually lose the eye.
“I want to get that eye protected as soon as possible,” Johnson said.
On April 11, Luna underwent a procedure to release the scar tissue on her lower lid and place a healthy graft of skin from her shoulder over the exposed area.
“I’ve had a lot of experience doing this in burn patients and it works very well,” Johnson said.
After surgery, Luna wore a pressure patch over the graft for a week to increase the blood supply to the new skin.
“I think the success rate, the prognosis, should be really good,” Johnson said.
Fenner tells us her daughter has bounced back from the sight sparing surgery but the journey to remove the nevus continues, and Local 10 News will be there along the way.