Boy with ‘two faces’ who was given no chance of survival turns 13

Boy with ‘two faces’ who was given no chance of survival turns 13

Mangalore Today News Network

June 07,2017: A boy who was given zero chance of survival after being born with a condition that appears to give him two faces has turned 13.

 

Tres Johnson, from Missouri, was born with a craniofacial duplication that left him with a large cleft, eyes spaced further apart, separated nostrils and an abnormally shaped head.

The disorder also means he suffers from cognitive delays and up to 40 seizures a day.

 

His parents Brandy and Joshua have also had to deal with abuse from strangers telling to them to ‘kill it’ and ‘put him down’.

Brandy, 35, his full-time carer, said: ‘We don’t know what will happen in Tres’ future, no one thought he would be here today.

‘It was very exciting celebrating his birthday and emotional, but very surreal waiting for the big day, I was an anxious mess worrying about him.

‘Tres reaching the age of 13 is a huge deal, it’s surreal knowing he’s made it this far, the past 13 years have been nothing but a fight for survival.

‘I lost count of the amount of times we were told he wouldn’t make it but here he is today a teenager, we now ignore their predictions and just focused on one day at a time.’

Tres has undergone numerous operations to close the cleft and reshape his skull to relieve the pressure on his brain.

At one point he suffered from more than 400 seizures a day but his mother has been able to calm the symptoms using cannabis oil.

David A. Staffenberg, MD, paediatric reconstructive plastic surgeon at NYU Langone, said: ‘As painful as it is to hear, more often than not parents are told the prognosis is dismal and nothing can be done.

‘Mothers frequently describe being in a delivery room when their baby is handed to them and everyone in the room shrugs their shoulders it’s a heartbreaking scene.’