Kanyi Okeke
A baby born with part of her brain outside her skull is thriving despite doctors giving her little chance of survival. Faith Martin, now aged three months, was not expected to breathe on her own when she was born.
Doctors also explained to her heartbroken parents Jessica Williams, 20, and Aaron Martin, 21, that they wouldn’t intervene if she couldn’t.
Faith now needs MRI scans every six months and checks-ups to make sure she’s developing as expected. Ms Williams said:
‘We came home and she’s been fine and she’s been doing everything at three months that she should be doing and she will lead a totally normal life.’ ‘It proves that doctors can be wrong as this outcome just wasn’t an option for her. ‘She’s quite a determined little thing. She’s our little miracle.’
During a 17-week pregnancy scan at Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital her parents were told she had the rare condition encephalocele, which is described as a sac-like protrusion of the brain, and the membranes that cover it, through an opening in the skull. It happens when the neural tube – an embryo’s precursor to the central nervous system which comprises the brain and spinal cord – does not close completely during pregnancy.
