DUSTIN VANOVERSCHELDE: I’m optimistic that she’s gonna be very happy.
COMM: Jennifer Hiles was born with an Arterial
Venus Malformation or AVM, a jumbled mass of arteries and veins in her head and on her
face that could haemorrhage at any time, possibly fatally. She had tissue expanders placed under
her skin to allow new skin to grow to be used in grafts when she has her AVM removed.
JENNIFER HILES: I don’t want to look perfect,
I just want to look normal. Girl: They are going to cut the pink off your
face, they are going to cut your nose off. Girl 2: Yeah, that’s gross!
Girl: Blood everywhere!
COMM: Finally the day of surgery has arrived
and Jennifer and her family have travelled to New York. Two days earlier, Jennifer had
her AVM embolised to prevent bleeding during the operation.
JENNIFER HILES: I just know that everything
is going to be okay and it’s still scary because it’s a big change.
DUSTIN VANOVERSCHELDE: See you soon!
Nurse: She’s going to be fine. You can have some breakfast.
DUSTIN VANOVERSCHELDE: Okay, thank you! DR. MILTON WANER: So you know we are going
to remove the AV malformation, all the way down to there, we’re also going to remove
it from your cheek and your upper lip. This skin over here is going to be removed all
the way across and this skin over here is going to be used to fix your nose, if we need
any cartilage we are going to take it from your rib and we’re going to make a small
incision. But I don’t think that’s going to be needed, don’t worry about the bleeding.
Just take some easy breaths in and out.
DR. MILTON WANER: The AVM has been removed
from her nasal region. We’ve still got some AVM alongside the nose, which I’m gonna
begin to remove now, but the main bulk of the AVM has already been removed.
DR. MILTON WANER: So, this is the tissue expander
and that’s the port through which we were injecting saline to be able to expand it.
DUSTIN VANOVERSCHELDE: How do you feel about
mom’s surgery? Are you excited for her to be healthy?
Girl: I’m excited. Girl 2: But I’m kind of sad too.
DUSTIN VANOVERSCHELDE: Kind of sad? Yeah, it’s kind of scary, it’s going to be okay.
It’s going to be better now that we’re here.
Girl: Got your nose. DUSTIN VANOVERSCHELDE: I’m gonna get your nose.
Girl: You can’t get your nose back!
DR. MILTON WANER: So the surgery went exceptionally
well, I’m very happy. So when she’s healed up she’s going to look very good. She faced
a life of huge problems, she has a husband, she has two young children, beautiful children,
and we’ve now been able to give her a chance to live a normal life.
JENNIFER HILES: When I first woke up form
surgery and I was in the recovery room I actually felt so good that I didn’t feel like I had
the surgery at all. And I had to ask a doctor like what happened and I asked him to take
a picture of my face, I was so happy because my entire face was just white and it looked
AVM free and I couldn’t even believe it was me.
DUSTIN VANOVERSCHELDE: When Jennifer woke
up from her surgery I had the complete opposite reaction that she did, I was like super sad
about it, honestly like seeing her face all stitched up like that was really crazy.
JENNIFER HILES: I think it was way harder
for my family and to see me like that, like all stitched up after surgery, because they
would just think about how much pain I was in or see me completely different than they’re
used to seeing me.
COMM: After surgery, Jennifer started to experience
some problems as the skin on her right cheek started to die and the AVM started to come
back between her nostrils.
JENNIFER HILES: When you’re skin is literally
like dying on your face it’s, it’s really scary, like I would look in the mirror like
a hundred times a day just to see what’s changing and then just kind of pray, hoping
that it would get better. But it was comforting knowing that I had doctors there and only
a few minutes away that could you know tell me that it was going to be okay no matter
which way it went!
COMM: Jennifer needs some more cosmetic procedures,
thinning her nose and repairing the scarring. She is no longer in danger of dying from bleeding out.
JENNIFER HILES: I don’t really bleed very
much anymore and if I do, it’s just a little tiny bit. I’m happy where I am at right
now about the progress. Just to see how far I’ve gone right now like that makes me so
hopeful for the future.
JENNIFER HILES: I’ve been making YouTube
videos, just kind of updating my journey as I go, like I have a lot of internet support.
It’s just…’cause any time I’m having a bad our rough day I can go back.
DUSTIN VANOVERSCHELDE: I just hope that she is happy with all the surgeries and how she
looks in the end, and just hope to have a healthy wife!
JENNIFER HILES: I just hope that all my next
surgeries go as planned and the scars all fade and one day I could just, you know, walk
into a room and have people see me for me and not just my condition all the time.