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Nov 16, 2006 12:24 am US/Eastern
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Special Surgery Helps Man Smile For First Time
Part I Of Dr. Marks' Report On Plight Of Geoffrey Woodcock
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Geoffrey Woodcock was born with half of his face completely paralyzed.
"I just figured, okay, I'm ugly and people think that I'm ugly," he said.
Doctors don't know what caused it, but Geoffrey's left facial nerve just didn't work. On that side he couldn't smile, frown, blink, or make any other facial expression that most of us take for granted.
He's now 30 years old, but he says it was a tough way to grow up.
"I got teased, the kids were ruthless. I was just, you know, never had a date in high school and that whole thing because everyone would always make fun of me," he recalls.
Woodcock had given up any hope of looking better. Then he had a chance encounter with a plastic surgeon.
"More often than not, the patient comes in after having a paralysis for many years and having been faced with information that theres nothing that anybody can do for them," says Dr. Roger Simpson of Long Island Plastic Surgery Group.
But he told Woodcock there was something he could do: a specialized surgical procedure called facial reanimation. Dr. Simpson is one of a handful of surgeons in the country with years of experience doing this operation, and he offered to help Woodcock.
"They're astounded to see what can be done," he says.
"Its just God is like smiling upon me finally," adds Geoffrey. And he hopes to return that smile -- with both sides of his face -- for the first time. "You know when I was a kid, I'd look in the mirror [and wonder] what would it be like if I [could smile]. I always wanted to see what I would look like."
On Thursday, we'll show you this unusual surgery and the difference it's made in Geoffrey's appearance -- and his life!
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)