Baby with huge cysts that looks like a second head survives surgery

A little boy, Yamanoor Naranal who was born in India with a fluid-filled sac on the back of his skull so big it looked like he had a second head has successfully udergone and survived a six-hour operation to have it removed.
His parents Karriappa Naranal, 35, and wife Shridevi Naranal, 28, from Tavariyara village, in Karnataka, had been told a few days after he was born that there was no hope of treatment.

The couple visited a government hospital in Kustagi several times begging for help but after being continually turned away they lost all hope of ever finding a cure. Fortunately, a health care worker at a health camp suggested they traveled to a better hospital in Bangalore and get the baby checked.

Kariappa, who works as a daily wage laborer on construction sites and earns just about $1.50 per day said:

"Many doctors told me there was a 90 per cent chance my baby would die if he had surgery. Doctors said not to risk it because successful surgery was impossible.

"But then we got a ray of hope in Bangalore when a doctor said there was a 50-50 chance of survival so we went for it."

When Yamanoor was admitted to Sapthagiri Hospital, in Karnataka, Bangalore, last month, his cyst was 17 cm-20 cm in diameter, the same size as a baby’s head.

On March 27th a neurosurgeon at
Dr Hariprakash Chakravarthy, 38, a neurosurgeon at Sapthagiri Hospital, said: "This condition is born to those mothers who suffer a deficiency of folic acid.

This scan was taken of the tot after his surgery

"This deformity is known as occipital encephalocele, and happens when there’s a gap between two bones of the skull, and as the skull develops it grows into a bulge filled with fluid.

"We had very low expectation about the success of the surgery since a young baby cannot afford to lose a lot of blood. Even a 10 ml to 20 ml loss of blood can cause the heart to stop. When we cut the protruding part of the brain it resulted in some blood loss but thankfully nothing bad happened and the little baby survived."

Fortunately, the baby survived the surgery and  was finally discharged from hospital on Monday and is now at home recovering.

Kariappa is thankful that his son is in a good condition and on his way to a full recovery. He will be having another operation next month and will have a check up every three months.