Baby Born With Tessier Cleft And Brain Developing Outside Skull Had Another Chance At Life, Went Through Successful 7-Hour Operation

Baby Dominic Gundrum has undergone a successful 7-hour operation which removed his encephalocele, a very rare congenital condition that made his brain to grow outside his skull and restored his face features, giving him a brand new chance in life. Baby Dominic came to this with a congenital disease called encephalocele and a Tessier facial cleft, a combination doctors thought is very, very rare.

Mark and Mary Gundrum, parents of baby Dominic, found out the condition of their son after they went to their doctor for the 20-week ultrasound of Mary. During that time, they just wanted to know the sex of their 8th child. The ultrasound result showed both good and bad news.

The good news is they will have a baby boy. The bad news is that the fetus has a big, triangle-shaped gap running from his upper lip through the middles of his nose and forehead according to a post at Boston Children's Hospital. Doctors advised Mark and Mary to abort the baby, but the two refused as they fear God.

"I'm not going to take the life of my child," I'm So Blessed Daily quoted Mary as saying. She added, "That's my child. It's that simple."

The bad news left the two devastated. However, they did not give up and instead searched the Internet for any information about the case of their child. Through their research, they found Dr. John Meara, the chief plastic surgeon at Boston Children's Hospital. They emailed Dr. Meara the ultrasound result of baby Dominic.

When Dr. Meara saw the ultrasound of baby Dominic, he said that the combination diagnoses of baby Dominic's are an "exquisitely rare" in which many parents are advised to stop the pregnancy. However, in the midst of the terrifying news, Dr. Meara assured them that everything would be OK.

So they planned a surgery that will remove the baby Dominic's encephalocele, reconstruct the Tessier cleft and bring together the facial features of the baby. The day has come, and baby Dominic went through a 7-hour operation. The operation went successfully however some complications occurred after the surgery which required the child to be in the intensive care unit.

Several weeks after struggling in intensive care, baby Dominic survived and then went home to their house in Wisconsin. Today, Dominic is a healthy, happy little kiddo.