Babies Born With Deformities Who Survived Against Odds

In inexplicable freaks of nature, there are babies born all over the world with physical deformities. However, sometimes with pioneer medical advancements and on other occasions, through sheer willpower and perseverance, many of them manage to beat the odds and survive at all costs.

Here is a list of five such cases that made headlines in 2018:

Baby without face

Matthew Gillado, born to Isabela and Raven Gillado from the Philippines, was born with a chunk of his face missing. Matthew’s cranial region of the face is made of flat bones and a chunk of his skull was missing because he was born with a rare facial deformity called acrania.

According to Merriam Webster, acrania was described as “congenital partial or total absence of the skull” – a condition that one every 20,000 babies developed in a fetal stage.

"When I first saw our baby, I trembled, felt weak and almost collapsed inside the delivery room. He was almost faceless,” Raven said.

The couple believes the over-the-counter capsules containing phenylephrine HCI, chlorphenamine maleate and paracetamol, which Isabela took for a week during the first month of her pregnancy when she was suffering from fever, might have caused Matthew’s rare facial condition. However, despite all odds, Matthew made it to his first birthday on Oct. 3, by consuming drops of milk and vitamins every day.

“He is fighting for his life and we should also strive to provide his daily needs and always hope for a better future for our first born,” the infant’s mother said. “We will not let go. We’re all fighting and looking forward that someday through God’s grace and advancement in medical science, I can see the handsome face of Matthew, God’s gift to us."

Baby with two faces

After a pair of conjoined twins did not develop properly in the womb of an Indonesian mother, she gave birth to a baby with two faces, two brains but a single head. The story of then-two-month-old Gilang Andika, from Batam, Indonesia, was widely reported in July.

Since his mother’s egg did not completely split in two during pregnancy, Gilang carried the face and brain of a sibling who failed to grow his or her own separate body. Due to his rare condition, he was unable to be breastfed, forcing him to be fed via a tube. He also suffered from a condition called hydrocephalus, which is caused by a build-up of fluid in the brain, the Huffington Post reported.

His parents, Ernilasari and Mustafa, said at the time that they desperately wanted to save their infant son, but could not afford to bear the cost of the complicated procedure.

Baby with four legs, two penises

A baby was born with four legs and two penises, in Gorakhpur, a city in the northern Indian region of Uttar Pradesh, in September.

The deformity that the unnamed baby suffered from was believed to be the result of a parasitic conjoined twin, which never fully developed inside the mother’s womb and whose body parts remained attached to the baby, Mail Online reported.

Although the parents of the child and the doctors who helped deliver him were shocked, the local people were fascinated by his rare appearance and hailed him as a “miracle from God,” walking for miles to get a glimpse of him.

Baby with four hands, three legs

In February, one of the twin babies born to Malama Hawwau Jamilu in Kaduna, Nigeria, had four hands and three legs. Despite her daughter’s odd appearance, Jamilu said she considered the twins a blessing from God, Daily Trust reported.

"Of course, one would have loved to deliver the babies without any deformity. But since Allah in His infinite mercy had decided to create the twins like this, what can I do? This is why you see me relaxed, and I love them both,” Jamilu said. “The only peculiar behaviour exhibited by the deformed twin is a big appetite. Apart from that. She is normal like any other baby. Have you forgotten that I carried her in my womb for nine months? I love my daughter and I know that she is human, despite her physical challenge.”

Dr. Umar Abdul Aziz of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) said the infant would face no complications in growing up as a healthy child after necessary surgery is performed, adding that the mother’s refusal to seek ante-natal care might have been a contributing factor in the child’s deformity.

“It is however advisable for all pregnant women to be attending ante-natal for their health and that of their unborn babies. Many things can be detected during ante-natal that would assist in safe delivery and correction of abnormalities. It is not proper at this period of the world’s development for somebody to decide to ignore ante-natal and be giving birth at home,” he said.

Baby with underdeveloped jaw

A baby born in Scotland, born with an underdeveloped jaw, small neck, floppy airway, cleft palate, and without a part of his spine, who underwent groundbreaking face surgery celebrated his first birthday in April.

Noah Connell was born with such a rare and potentially deadly condition that doctors warned that he could die from choking on his own saliva. He could not eat or drink and had to be fed 620ml of a high-calorie solution through a tube so he would be able to gain weight and grow. His condition also made it difficult for him to breathe properly, Tech Times reported.

However after eight surgeries on his face, including a mandibular jaw distraction – which involved breaking his jaw in two places and inserting rods to straighten his face as well as pushing his tongue forward – saved his life.