Baby born with brain outside skull (NFBSK)

[snopes]

Comment: Is this true?

A baby boy was born with a cleft palate and brain outside his skull in a maternity hospital in the southeastern Turkey recently. His parents have had trouble getting medical treatment due to a lack of local specialists.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=844d12c29e

[inkrose115]

Yowza, that baby is lucky to be alive. More infants with that kind of defect don't last very long.

[Nonny Mouse]

I really should have known better than to look. Now I feel sick. Even if that poor child could be somehow put to rights, the mind boggles at the complex and invasive surgeries it would require. I have a hard time seeing how he can survive.

Nonny

[Little Galaxy]

I'm not game to read the article because I do not want to see any images - was the kid delivered by caesarean? Because I can't imagine that he would survive a vaginal delivery with a defect like that.

I don't know whether his chances at long-term survival would be good.

[lynnejanet]

Poor little guy. He's a big, strong healthy-looking fellow, aside from the obvious. I wonder how they are feeding him?

I wish that I understood what is being said in the video. It seemed like there was some sort of controversy.

I can't imagine how a child with defects like that can survive without immediate and drastic medical intervention. I know there was a baby girl born in our city about 20 years ago, with her brain outside of her skull, and died very shortly after birth. I believe that she had many other developmental problems, though.

I'll be interested to know how he fares.

I don't think this is a case of the brain outside the skull - it looks like a condition called hydranencephaly combined with lack of a skull..

HYDRANENCEPHALY is a rare condition in which the cerebral hemispheres are absent and replaced by sacs filled with cerebrospinal fluid. Usually the cerebellum and brainstem are formed normally. An infant with hydranencephaly may appear normal at birth. The infant's head size and spontaneous reflexes such as sucking, swallowing, crying, and moving the arms and legs may all seem normal. However, after a few weeks the infant usually becomes irritable and has increased muscle tone (hypertonia). After several months of life, seizures and hydrocephalus may develop. Other symptoms may include visual impairment, lack of growth, deafness, blindness, spastic quadriparesis (paralysis), and intellectual deficits.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/c..._disorders.htm

[lynnejanet]

Originally Posted by medtchva

I don't think this is a case of the brain outside the skull - it looks like a condition called hydranencephaly combined with lack of a skull... [snip]
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/c..._disorders.htm

I'm not sure that you can tell from the photos whether the brain is intact, or not. Either way, it's clear that infant is missing a portion of its skull, and its brain is therefor outside of it.

I guess if he does have hydraencephaly, his prognosis is even worse than it would appear. Even if they were able to repair the skull and palate, he would be doomed to an early death.

Originally Posted by lynnejanet

I guess if he does have hydraencephaly, his prognosis is even worse than it would appear. Even if they were able to repair the skull and palate, he would be doomed to an early death.

This child is doomed anyway. There is no way that severe an abnormality can be corrected without severe brain damage. Not trying to be cold, but I've seen things like this more than once.

[llewtrah]

I've only seen this in animals where at least euthanasia ended the poor mite's plight. Any brain present will be so abnormal that the child is not going to survive.

I'm guessing that the extreme cleft extends right up the skull so you have a form of exencephaly that isn't the classical form described in the link.