FOUND! Missing Minnie Mouse doll that helped Bucks County girl through dozens of brain surgeries

Update: In a Facebook post Wednesday morning, Niki Ramirez said Minnie the doll was found in a pile of clothes in the family’s home. The family had previously searched the house “top to bottom and even took the mattresses out of the twins’ room and didn’t find her,” Ramirez wrote. “We are human!! We live a crazy life and this just goes along with it. In the end all that matters is my daughter has her beloved Minnie back in her arms and now can rest easy." Ramirez thanked everyone who helped search for Minnie and shared her initial Facebook post, which went viral with more than 62,000 shares. To prevent a future missing mouse report, the family plans to have Minnie microchipped, Ramirez wrote.

A Bucks County family is asking for help finding a beloved Minnie Mouse doll that has helped their 13-year-old daughter through 40 brain surgeries.

Bryanna Ramirez last recalls having the toy at a Chick-fil-A restaurant Saturday evening in Trevose, near Neshaminy Mall. But when the Levittown family returned to the restaurant that night and enlisted staff and other customers to help search, Minnie was nowhere to be found.

“My daughter is beyond heartbroken. I hope we can find her. I can’t imagine having to send her into the [operating room] again without her Minnie,” Bryanna’s mother, Niki, wrote in a pleading Facebook post.

While many children have a beloved toy, Minnie has comforted Bryanna during treatment for a combination of brain and connective tissue disorders on a level that few children must endure.

Bryanna was born with a skull too small for her brain, a condition that pushes the brain into the spinal canal. She has had 40 surgeries at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia — including 10 in a three-month span last summer.

“Minnie has not left her side since she got her as a baby,” Ramirez said. “Everything that Bryanna had, Minnie went through, too. It’s her security, it’s everything.”

Minnie accompanies Bryanna into the operating room, to give her confidence and strength for every procedure. When Bryanna needed a brain scan, Minnie’s little mouse head got a wrap like the one Bryanna wore. After Bryanna had a stroke, the duo sported matching hand braces.

The missing mouse is about 9 inches tall and is wearing a salmon-pink dress with matching shoes and bow.

In a picture Ramirez posted of the missing mouse, Minnie has a CHOP armband around her waist (added to her ensemble in case she got lost at the hospital), but Ramirez said she was no longer wearing it.

Anyone who has information about Minnie may contact Bensalem police at 215-633-3719.