How NSW boy Caleb Turpie learned to smile again after brain cancer

A life-saving operation literally took brain cancer sufferer Caleb Turpie’s cheeky grin but a complex plastic surgery has given it back years later.

Brain cancer surgery saved Caleb Turpie’s life but left him paralysed on his right side, robbing him of his smile for years.

It took complex plastic surgery to restore that cheeky grin.

Caleb was a normal, healthy and happy nine-year-old until he started losing weight and feeling unwell. For six weeks his mum Suzanne Turpie did the rounds of doctors before being referred to a paediatrician. The news was devastating.

A fast-growing form of brain cancer, medulloblastoma, was located deep in his brain. The Port Macquarie boy was flown to Sydney Children’s Hospital for surgery the next day.

“As he started to regain consciousness we could tell he wasn’t right, his whole right side was paralysed,” Mrs Turpie said.

“He would need to learn to sit, stand and walk all over again through physio, which he did, but the right-hand side of his face never regained any kind of movement back at all whatsoever.”

Caleb Turpie woke from brain cancer surgery at age nine paralysed on the right side.

Although brain cancer surgery saved his life, it robbed Caleb Turpie, aged 9, of his smile.

There was six weeks of radiation followed by seven months of chemotherapy at Randwick and intensive physio to learn to walk again. But everyone missed his cheeky smile.

“Caleb could walk fairly well unassisted but we just never got any type of movement back in his face,” she said.

“We started looking at surgery we had heard about over in the US that was able to help kids regain their smile back, but it was quite ambitious.

“We knew we could probably never afford to get over there. It was a scary thought knowing something was there but we couldn’t quite reach it.

At age 12, plastic surgery grafted muscles from Caleb's thigh to his face.

Caleb Scott, now aged 15, is able to smile again. Picture: Nathan Edwards

“A charity called Cure My Brain asked us what the one thing we wished for was and we said we’d like to get Caleb’s smile back.”

“I did feel a bit shocked I couldn’t move one side of my face but over time I gradually came to appreciate what I did have,” Caleb said.

“It is a hard thing to go through, you lose the smile but you gain his life … you feel grateful for that, you gain so much but you still want perfection for him,” dad Rob said.

The charity made contact with the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse in Sydney where plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr Sydney Ch’ng said she could help.

“She confidently said she would graft some muscles from his leg and put them into his face,” Mr Turpie said.

But it was a complex negotiation to get Caleb into Lifehouse.

“It took a good 12 months to get the operation through as Caleb was a paediatric patient but had to get approval and go through a whole lot of paperwork and politics,” Mrs Turpie said.

Caleb, by then 12, finally underwent the complex surgery.

“They grafted two muscles from my leg to my face and I’ve had to work those muscles to fix themselves to become face muscles,” Caleb said.

Caleb Turpie gets his smile back post plastic surgery.

Caleb Turpie with his mum Suzanne and dad Rob in Port Macquarie. Picture: Nathan Edwards

Six weeks later, Caleb felt some feeling coming back to the right side of his face.

“I could feel a part of my right side starting to twitch and I said to mum: ‘I think something is moving’,” he said.

“He actually was able to twitch the sides of his mouth up,” Mrs Turpie said.

“It had been three years since we had seen that smile and to get it back was really heartwarming, very special.”

Now 15, the art of smiling, which comes so easily to the rest of us, still has to be a conscious effort.

“Caleb is still learning how to smile fully. Smiling comes naturally to us but Caleb still has to think about it, but the results are phenomenal, it’s changed his life and his appearance dramatically,” Mrs Turpie said. .

“I am very happy I got my smile back and my parents are very appreciative,” Caleb said.
Support Chris O’Brien Lifehouse at: http://gothedistance.org.au