Born with a rare condition, 21-month old toddler Ollie Trezise is dubbed as the real-life Pinocchio.
The young boy’s birth defect causes his brain to grow inside his nose through a crack in his skull. In order to help him breathe and close the gap in his skull, the brave youngster had to undergo several painful operations.
PHOTO CREDIT: Mirror UK
According to his 22-year old mother Amy Poole, doctors discovered that there was something different with Ollie at her 20-week scan. It was at that point that they noticed a soft tissue growing on his face. But even with this knowledge, Amy was still shocked to see her son’s condition after giving birth to him at the University Hospital of Wales in February 2014.
“When they gave me Ollie to hold, I was so surprised that I almost couldn’t speak. He was so tiny, but there was this enormous golf-ball sized lump on his nose,” Amy told THE DAILY MAIL UK.
Later on, it was confirmed through an MRI scan that Ollie was suffering from encephalocele, a condition that causes the brain to grow through a hole in the skull that creates a protruding sac. In the young boy’s case, the sac had grown on his nose causing it to stick out.
Over the next nine months, his nose grew excessively, making him look like Pinocchio.
Ollie underwent a two-hour surgery at Birmingham Children’s Hospital in November 2014 in order to remove the excess sac of brain fluid and reconstruct his nose. Although Ollie is now fully recovered, the boy still receives insensitive comments from other people. This is why Amy aims to spread awareness about his condition to prevent him and other children with similar condition from being bullied.
Watch the video below.
What is Encephalocele?
A rare type of neural tube defect, encephalocele is described as a sac-like profusion or projection of the brain and the membranes that cover it through an opening in the skull. This birth defect occurs because the neural tube does not completely close during pregnancy.
According to cdc.gov, taking of B vitamin called folic acid before a woman gets pregnant can increasingly reduce the number of babies born with such condition.