MIDLAND, Texas -- Jessica McClure underwent two hours of surgery Saturday to relieve swelling in her right foot, trapped awkwardly during her 58-hour ordeal in an abandoned well. Doctors said it could be a week before they know if the appendage will have to be amputated.
Jessica's beaming mother said she was glad to have her child back from the ordeal, which was broadcast live on television to an anxious nation and drew the attention of President Reagan and Vice President Bush, who once lived in Midland.
'I'm so happy that she's safe and she's back,' said Reba 'Sissy' McClure, 18, 'The whole world has her back.
'She said 'mama'. She wants her bottle. She said Pooh, Winnie the Pooh,' Reba McClure added.
The toddler underwent surgery from 10 a.m. to shortly before noon Saturday at Midland Memorial Hospital for a fasciotomy, an operation to relieve pressure in her right foot.
Dr. Sheldon Viney, an orthopedist, said doctors operated when fluids began returning to Jessica's dehydrated foot, which was trapped perpendicular to her body in the well 22 feet below the surface.
'The right foot was very marginal. We did not know if we would be able to salvage the foot at all,' Viney said. 'Because of rehydration, the foot started to swell and we decided we needed to open the foot up.
'We are cautiously optimistic about the skin and the muscles. We still will not be able to tell for a number of days or a week whether we will be able to salvage the foot. It's going to be a day-by-day process.'
He said Jessica 'is stable. ... Children have great recuperative powers.'
Dr. Terry Tubb, a plastic surgeon, said the child lost an area of skin about the size of a silver dollar above her right eyebrow. She will require surgery using plastic bubbles to slowly inflate the skin and pull it back together without scarring, he added.
She also will continue undergoing treatment at least two or three times a day in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber designed to speed healing of tissues.
Dr. Debbie Reese, however, said Jessica will suffer no psychological damage, adding, 'She's so young, she will not remember it a year from now.'
Hospital spokeswoman Lori Johnson said the president and vice president may call parents Chip and Reba McClure, both 18. Reagan and his wife Nancy -- in a hospital for a mastectomy due to cancer -- watched the rescue on television Friday, and Johnson said Bush, a former resident of Midland, may visit the hospital.
Reagan postponed calling the McClure family Saturday because Jessica was undergoing surgery, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said. He said the president would call the McClures on Sunday.
Jessica's ordeal was the second tragedy this year for Chip McClure, a painter. Family members said the teenager's brother died of AIDS in May.
Well-wishers from around the nation remembered Jessica with flowers, teddy bears and gifts, briefly knocking out the hospital switchboard with hundreds of inquiries.
Among the more than 300 teddy bears expected to be delivered was one from Keisha Knight Pulliam of television's 'The Cosby Show' and a 40-inch-tall Winnie the Pooh bear donated by Disneyland.
The 18-month-old girl was hoisted out of a rescue shaft at 7:55 p.m. CDT Friday in the arms of paramedic Steve Forbes, who gently kissed her head after emerging from the well.
She fell about 10 a.m. Wednesday through the 8-inch opening of a dry water well shaft while playing a game called 'mama, daddy, baby' with several other children in her aunt's backyard. Workers spent two days digging a rescue shaft parallel to the well and then bored upwards to reach her.
Jessica was pulled to safety to the cheers of family, friends and dozens of volunteers and in the glare of lights from network television crews broadcasting her rescue live.
She weighed 17.5 pounds, down four pounds from her most recent weighing six weeks ago, and gobbled down her first meal, an orange Popsicle.
'When we gave her the popsicle last night, you know, most kids lick it. She ate it,' Viney said.
Welder Willie Thames made a metal cap reading 'For Jessica 10-16-87 with love from all of us' and welded it atop the narrow well opening. Wooden planks covered the rescue tunnel, which Midland firefighters said would be filled in and capped.
Donations to a fund for Jessica's medical care can be sent to Texas Commerce Bank, P.O. Box 3905, Midland, Texas 79702.
