Little Girl Is All Smiles After Being Saved From Lethal Birthmark
- January 16 , 2012
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A 3-year old girl, who was being strangled to death by her birthmark, is now able to smile after becoming the first patient in the UK to trial a pioneering treatment. There was nothing to suggest anything out of the ordinary when Millie Field was born. The only clue that something might have been amiss was a small blue mark on her face, which midwives suggested was a bruise caused during delivery. Sadly only 3 weeks later the little girl was in Intensive Care with major breathing difficulties. The small blue mark that had previously been dismissed was now an angry red growth that had a stranglehold on her windpipe, jaw and larynx. An emergency tracheotomy helped her breathe but robbed her of the ability to make any sound.
Her doctors diagnosed a condition called hemangioma, which is a birthmark caused by a benign tumour of the blood vessels in the skin. Her parents, Michelle and Stuart, feared their baby girl might never be able to breathe on her own, talk or even smile. Although she was given strong steroids they did little to shrink the tumour. Morphine was prescribed on a regular basis just to make Millie comfortable.
With their daughter still seriously ill in hospital after 6 months, Millie’s mother heard about a drug trial in France for propranolol, which had been shown to shrink hemangiomas. Fortunately doctors agreed to give it a try with miraculous results. Although Millie still has some speech problems, thanks to this pioneering treatment, she is now a happy, smiling beautiful little girl.
Article written by Luna Raye
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