Miracle Baby Born Without a Nose

Eli Thompson, a 6-pound, 8-ounce baby who was born March 4, finally returned home last night after weeks in the hospital dealing with the side effects of complete congenital arhinia, a 1 in 197 million condition in which a person is born without a nose, Al.com reports.

A 2008 article from the U.S. Library of Medicine National Institute of Health stated there had only been 30 reported cases of complete congenital arhinia to date. The diagnosis is "difficult," and the
study says the "prognosis of such children is poor in terms of mental and physical development as well as cosmetic and functional outcomes."

According to Eli's mother, Brandi, there had been no indications that Eli wouldn't be a healthy baby. "I pulled back, and said, 'Something's wrong!'" Thompson told Al.com. "And the doctor said, 'No, he's perfectly fine.' Then I shouted, 'He doesn't have a nose!'"

On a GoFundMe page set up by Thompson and her husband, Troy, so others could contribute to Eli's medical bills, she wrote:

Every ultrasound I ever had came back normal, so I was expecting a perfectly healthy baby boy, but to my surprise Eli was born without a nose. My doctor told me it was a 1 in 10 billion chance of this happening. We've had an ENT specialist examine him and from what he could tell with just his hands and eyes, Eli doesn't have nasal passages or sinus cavities. Which would mean that even with a plastic surgeon building a nose for him, it wouldn't work. They've ordered more test and scans and we are currently awaiting those results. This was a hard blow to handle because we were almost certain that he did have them, but we are still hopeful. He will have to have a tracheoomy & a feeding bag inserted into his stomach, which is also not what I expected.

The Thompsons are thrilled Eli is home though, and they are chronicling his progress post-tracheal tube on Facebook.

Though some of the money will probably go toward plastic surgery for Eli one day, "We think he's perfect the way he is," Thompson told Al.com. "Until the day he wants to have a nose, we don't want to touch him. We have to take it day by day."

Eli is such a precious cute baby. He has a long road ahead of him but he has the best family taking care of him.

source: cosmopolitan magazine