Their senior year didn’t play out the way they had expected because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In many cases they experienced one disappointment after the other, including cancelation of proms and the alteration of graduations. Just four years earlier, Madison Kehe attended her brother Matt’s Jamestown High School graduation in the Amphitheater at Chautauqua Institution, where it had been held for decades. Madison’s Class of 2020 was separated into smaller groups with each group graduating at different times throughout the day on a small stage on a football field while keeping six feet between themselves and their friends.

Life had been good for the girl who always had a positive outlook. She was a gymnast from age seven until an injury resulting in surgery ended participation in her senior year. During middle school, she enjoyed being in Winterguard and when she was in eighth grade, she began playing her French horn in the high school marching band. She held down a part-time job in 11th and 12th grades and all the while she was an honor student.

As a new graduate, she was excited and ready to begin the education that would launch a career in diagnostic medical sonography. She had started a job at The Fish in Bemus Point that summer and commuted from school on weekends until they closed in the fall. Shortly after beginning the first semester of her freshman year at Alfred State College, she noticed a small lump in her mouth. Due to the COVID-19 shutdown, her dentist was only taking emergent cases.

“They kept rescheduling my appointments for two years,” says the young woman.

Nicole Kehe stands over her daughter on April 24, 2023 after Madison underwent the third of many surgeries. This surgery involved removing a large section of her fibula to replace the jaw that had been removed.

In May 2021 she went back to her weekend schedule of commuting home in order to work at her job and worked full-time throughout the summer months. She was able to attend her college classes on a religious exemption, but was not able to do the clinical internship the second year, because of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. She made the decision to leave school at the end of the first semester in December 2021 because she could not get a degree without interning in a medical facility. Her mother’s employer hired her a few months later when she became a title clerk at Ed Shults Ford.

“I noticed the lump was getting bigger and I knew that wasn’t good. In August 2022, I told the dentist’s office I had to be seen. After a biopsy was taken, I was referred to UB Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery.”

A second lump on the other side of her mouth was discovered. Biopsies proved both lumps were benign, but she was told she needed surgery. She then had a consultation with more in-depth scans.

A 6½ hour surgery was performed at Roswell Park on December 12, 2022 when 11 perfect, white teeth were extracted and the lower left jaw was removed in preparation for a cadaver bone graft. A high rejection rate went along with that option for surgery, but the doctor encouraged her to go with that method, because it was less invasive.

“They took a large piece of my jaw, because if they didn’t get it all, it would have come back with a vengeance.”

Five days later she was sent home on a feeding tube, which she filled with the contents of boxes kept at the foot of her bed. The refrigerator she had used to store snacks and drinks in her dorm room at college was now beside her bed holding ice for the small bag she held on her swollen face.

“Because I’m young and healthy, it could have taken better, but my body didn’t agree with it and started pushing it out,” Madison said.

Travel in the Buffalo area was prohibited due to a Christmas storm. When the roads opened on December 28, emergency surgery was performed at Oishei Children’s Hospital where there was an open operating room. The graft was removed and a cement placeholder was put in its place to allow healing.

“In a general sense, the first surgery should have worked out, but after the second biopsy they couldn’t have anticipated how much my tumor grew in two weeks,” Madison said.

During this time of recovery, she taught her kitten, Phoebe, to fetch, and high-five. The tiny feline had learned to come on command and sit prior to the surgery. Madison had been saving her money before the first surgery. One day in January 2023, while she was recovering and still on the feeding tube, her father took her to look at a house. The fixer-upper was in a pleasant residential area and had the large lot she had wanted. Not knowing what her immediate future held, she made an offer and closed on the property two months later. When she felt well, she could be found pulling down old plaster, mudding drywall or painting its interior.

“One day when I was outside, two neighbors wanted to know if I was Madison. They had read that I had bought the house and told me their church had been praying for me,” Madison said.

Not only had that church been praying. Congregations, women’s groups and prayer meetings in many churches, as well as others all over the US and her father’s exchange sister in Italy, were praying for the young woman.

“It helped a lot hearing from people I didn’t know who told me uplifting things and that they were praying,” she shares. “I am still receiving cards.”

On April 24, 2023, Madison had her third and most involved surgery, which lasted 10-12 hours. At this time the twelfth tooth was removed and a very large section of her fibula bone and a skin flap with muscle and blood vessels attached was taken, as well as a corresponding artery, so the bone would have a living graft with its own blood supply. Besides the major surgery on her leg, the right side of her neck was opened to allow for work on the left jaw replacement. Many tiny vascular clips still hold the vessels in place so they can heal and create new collateral vessels.

“When I woke up, I had a drain in the right side of my neck and another one in my leg. A metal wire that was attached to the artery from the graft was hanging from the right side of my neck and the other end was attached to a Doppler. It’s basically what I do, but technology did it for them,” she tells. “I had a ventilator through the left nostril, a feeding tube through the right nostril and a boot on my leg.”

She could not be fully sedated in recovery because it would risk the graft not receiving the amount of blood needed. A nurse gave her a white board and a marker, but she wasn’t able to see what she was writing, because she couldn’t lift her head off a special pillow. She left the hospital five days later with a feeding tube that was connected to a fanny pack on her waist and wearing the tall boot while walking with the assistance of a walker.

Once again, she and Phoebe spent the next month in Madison’s bedroom with the exception of the days spent at doctor appointments in Buffalo.

Healing and walking were the patient’s main goals, because she had planned a trip to Costa Rica with family and friends several months before. One month after the surgery, she was on her way, still very swollen, but the feeding tube, crutches and walker had been taken away. While in the tropics, if she became too tired or hot, she would sit on a knee scooter she had taken along and her boyfriend would push her. By this time, she had been eating soft foods for over four months, but was happy to find several dishes she could eat on the resort’s buffet. A small blender was always present if there was a chance she would be eating, including on this trip. Her travel companions were amused when she put a steak through the blender.

“I had a really good time, but got a staph infection from the pool in a small open area of the incision,” Madison said.

On October 25, 2023, outpatient surgery was performed to expose dental implants. The doctor discovered an infection in the chin area of the bone graft. The infection was cleaned out during the surgery and three of the dental implants were removed. She was put on an antibiotic. Part of that area of the bone graph still remains and it is healing well.

She returned to work the following Monday. Three days later, on November 3, as she was leaving for the day, she discovered she had forgotten her purse. As she went to her desk for the purse, she suddenly felt weak and collapsed with her mother watching. Leaving the purse behind may have saved her life, since she would have descended to the first floor via 24 cement steps or she could have been driving through Jamestown. She had no use of her right leg and little use of her right arm. She was taken by ambulance to UPMC-Chautauqua where it was determined she had had a stroke. This time she was flown to Buffalo General. An angiogram showed a blood clot in her brain therefore she was put on Heparin, a blood thinner, which caused a large hematoma on her leg. She returned home after staying a week in the hospital.

“I still had swelling and bruising and my left leg hurt very badly. I went back to work two weeks later,” Madison said.

She remained on blood thinners, but after a few scans, the doctors thought it best for her to have brain surgery to reroute the blood supply around the damaged artery. The surgery took place on March 24, 2024, when she was hospitalized for two days. An artery that fed her scalp was moved and attached to the brain near the clot. She remained on a blood thinner while she was monitored with scans.

She returned to classes on July 24, 2024, but this time to Great Lakes Institute of Technology in Erie, Pa. In the beginning she was told only some of her credits would transfer, but thanks to one of her teachers for bringing it to the attention of a new dean, they were all accepted, saving her $30,000. During this time, she worked part-time and attended full-time classes. She has been commuting to Olean General Hospital to do her clinical internship since April. Her graduation from Great Lakes will take place on Dec. 19 and she will begin a full-time position on January 5 at the hospital in Olean. She will have three more dental implants placed between now and then.

Madison recently joined a group chat with three other girls from various parts of the US, each in their early twenties, who have had very recent surgeries much like Madison’s.

“Each had a benign, but very aggressive tumor. They are still swollen and just getting back to walking,” she says. “I tell them there is an end in sight, even if it doesn’t feel like it now. I had no one to talk to, so I am happy to talk to them.”

With each surgery, her parents Chad and Nicole Kehe, were by her side. Chad had to return to work, but Nicole never left until her daughter was home.

“Through everything that happened there were a lot of devastating feelings while it was happening, but there is so much to be grateful for looking back. I’m thankful to be alive, independent and able to tell my story. I’m thankful for my family who helped me through the hard times and continue to help me mentally and physically. I’m thankful for my boyfriend and friends who stuck by me and to the many people who prayed for me and continue to keep me in their prayers to this day, even if I am a stranger to them. And I am thankful for the many doctors and nurses and all of the healthcare workers who have helped me along the way. Without them, all of the ‘what ifs’ could’ve been a reality. Everyone I have met in person, through the phone or through letters has helped me get through the rough patch tremendously with their compassion, education and love for helping others. I can pursue the career I love, eat the food that I love and carry on through my days with no difficulty. I will forever be thankful. Although there were many difficult times, pain is trumped by love. It DOES get better! God gives His toughest battles to His strongest warriors.”