A Chinese boy was born with a double face, making it look like he is wearing a mask.
On May 17th, 2010, the mother Yi Xilian said with great agony in a local Hospital in Changsha, Hunan province, that her 1-year-and-2-month-old son Kang Kang is suffering from a congenital facial cleft, and his mouth is cracked up to his ears.
Mother Yi Xilian and her husband used to work together in an electronics factory in Huizhou, southern China's Guangdong province. However, since she was pregnant Yi quit her job to go home and wait for the birth.
On March 4th, 19 days before the estimated birth date, Yi gave birth to Kang Kang, who weighed 4.62 lbs.
"My family didn't allow me to see my son at the beginning, and I pleaded with my husband to let me have a look. Before they passed me the baby, they told me 'don't be sad, don't be sad', but when I saw my son, I collapsed," said a crying Yi.
Yi said during pregnancy she had three pregnancy checkups in Xiangxiang City Women and Children's Hospital, but doctors told her that the results were all normal.
Professor Wang Duquan of 163 Hospital said there are many possible reasons, like disease infection during embryo development, taking medications during pregnancy, and so on.
Professor Wang said it's the first such case he ever met. "It's different from a cleft lip or cleft palate; it's a facial cleft. Not only his face muscles are cleft, but the inside bones are cleft."
Professor Wang said judging from the current situation the boy is only suffering from the facial cleft, and his intelligence should be normal.
Mother Yi said during pregnancy she didn't take any medications except some abortion prevention agents prescribed by the doctors at Xiangxiang Women and Children's Hospital.
Yi said 20 days after the birth she took Kang Kang to visit a big hospital in Changsha, where doctors told her that the surgery would cost at least 300,000 to 400,000 Yuan. "We couldn't afford such a large amount, and the kid is already 1 year old and we couldn't wait any longer."
Professor Wang said Kang Kang at least needs to receive two surgeries.
The surgeries would sew up the clefts on the surface skin, the deep muscle, and then reconstruct the facial bones.
Professor Wang said they'll try their best to resume a normal look for the baby, but as they never met such case before, the results are unpredictable.
SOURCE: Quirky China
