{"id":250739,"date":"2021-08-09T14:47:34","date_gmt":"2021-08-09T19:47:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=250739"},"modified":"2021-08-09T00:50:27","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T05:50:27","slug":"boy-brain-skull-defies-odds-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/boy-brain-skull-defies-odds-two\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Medical miracle’: Boy born with brain growing outside his skull turns two"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Maria and AJ Santa Maria learned that their preborn child, Lucas, would be born with\u00a0exencephaly, a condition considered fatal in which his brain was growing outside the skull, they didn’t expect him to live past birth. \u201cWe were gambling for when we decided to give birth to him, just a few minutes to hold him,\u201d Maria told WNDU<\/a>. \u201cNow, we\u2019ve already got two years.\u201d That’s because Lucas has defied the odds, becoming the first known child to survive the condition.<\/p>\n

According to Hackensack Meridian Health<\/a>,\u00a0“exencephaly is caused by a rare neural tube defect. That means the developing brain is exposed to amniotic fluid and other damaging complications in the womb.” Since there had been no one known to have survived the condition, the Santa Maria family prepared for Lucas’s death at the time of delivery. Their other children were there to greet him, a photographer was on hand, and they had contacted a funeral home.<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0Doctors said Lucas would die at birth. He\u2019s proving them all wrong.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lucas, however, had other plans. In fact, despite the bulge on his head, Lucas seemed to be an otherwise healthy newborn, breathing and eating on his own. Seeing that Lucas survived the birth, doctors quickly prepared to perform a groundbreaking surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to invent a surgery,\u201d said Dr. Timothy Vogel, pediatric\u00a0neurosurgeon at Joseph Sanzani Children\u2019s Hospital. \u201cThere was no roadmap or literature that says how to repair this.\u201d Dr. Vogel described the procedure in the WNDU interview, saying, \u201cWe provided him with a scalp and what happens is the layerings of the brain actually formed bone. So, he was able to form bone around a good portion of his skull.\u201d<\/p>\n