A baby girl was left fighting for her life after being born with half of her skull missing – but has amazed doctors by surviving. Little Ah Neath was born in February in a remote village in eastern Cambodia with a severe crater in the front of her head.
Part of her skull also jutted out at the back of her head. Her mum Srey and dad Heang were forced to sell their family home to pay for their little girls medical care. Doctors believe she has anencephaly – a condition that means a portion of her brain and skull are missing.
Ah Neath was kept in hospital for two months, where she was given regular oxygen to regulate her breathing. She has now been discharged and is living with family in the Ponhea Kraek District. Mum Srey said: “I knew there was something very wrong with my baby when she was born.
“I have cried for days and asked people to donate money.
“’We are poor and have sold our home and land to try to save my daughter. She is healthy, but her head does not have all of the skull.
“’We are facing hardship and struggling to raise her to survive on the planet.
“Our only hope is that doctors may be able to help, or a foreign doctor may help.”
The family are desperately crowdfunding to take their baby girl to a hospital in the capital city Phnom Penh, where they hope doctors will be able to help.
According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention anencephaly is serious birth defect in which a baby is born without parts of the brain and skull. It is a type of neural tube defect.
It is so rare it affects three in every 10,000 pregnancies in the United States.
Brain malformations caused by anencephaly are rare but children can survive with the condition.
Jaxon Buell from North Carolina was born in 2014 with just 20 per cent of his brain and was never expected to walk, talk or hear but defied expectations and reached his third birthday.
Source: The Sun UK