WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — While waiting in a West Des Moines exam room, Mya Buie nervously applies her lip gloss. Three months ago, the 17-year-old had multiple surgeries to reconstruct her jaw. In this moment, she is waiting to be seen for a postoperative checkup. She hasn’t liked medical settings since a shooting landed her in a Des Moines hospital’s intensive care unit for several days.
“It was kind of scary. It was traumatic,” she said of the night her mother’s ex-boyfriend shot her in the face during a fight just days before her birthday.
On the other hand, her surgeon, Dr. Simon Wright, has been looking forward to this appointment all week. He calls Buie one of his most memorable and brave patients…