Girl born with no face defies all the odds and celebrates her ninth birthday

Girl born with no face defies all the odds and celebrates her ninth birthday

Mangalore Today News Network

Sep 01, 2017: A girl who was born without a face has defied all the odds to reach her ninth birthday.

 

Vitória Marchioli, from Barra de São Francisco in Brazil, suffers from Treacher Collins syndrome – a condition which stopped 40 of her facial bones developing and left her with her eyes, mouth and nose displaced.

Doctors doubted she would survive past her first few hours, let alone nine years.

But Vitória has continued to defy all of their predictions, and has undergone eight operations to reconstruct her eyes, nose and mouth, as well as to stimulate her motor functions. Her most recent operation was at Shriner’s Hospital in Texas.

 

Her parents Ronaldo, 39, and Jocilene, 43, are continuing to fundraise for more treatment in the hope that it will give their daughter a better quality of life.

Earlier this month, on August 13, Vitória reached her ninth birthday – leaving doctors amazed and baffled.

Ronaldo said: ‘She does not have any life expectancy, we do not know how long she will survive, we didn’t expect her to make it until her ninth birthday but are so grateful she has.

‘Doctors can’t explain how she has lived so long, but they believe it is down to our care and the love we have for her that has kept her alive.

‘We’re hoping to continue fundraising to give our daughter a better quality of life and giving her the best appearance we can.

‘We fight for her so that she can look better and have a better quality of life. We love her and are thankful for having her alive.’

Treacher Collins Syndrome is an undergrowth disorder that affects one in 50,000 people.
Among the problems Vitória suffered at birth were a malformed nose, an obscured mouth and damaged eyes. Her left eye was protruding from its socket, and the other eye was covered by a mass of tissue.

Despite the family’s efforts to fix the problems with surgery over the years, they still face abusive comments about their young daughter’s appearance.
‘We have been verbally abused and rejected by the public because of the appearance of our daughter,’ Ronaldo said.

‘Even our other daughters have told us that children at school verbally abuse them for the appearance of Vitória.’

But everyone – including the doctors who delivered her nine years ago – is amazed that Vitória has survived for so long.

Rolando said: ‘Vitória receives all the care, affection and possible love that we can give her, we try every day to help her as much as we can.

‘In future, we hope humanity will have more love for people independent of their appearance, skin colour, race, religion and more.’

Courtesy: metro.co.uk