A little girl who was born with a rare genetic condition is finally preparing for her first day at school. Olivia Gillies has Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS), a condition that's left her with an over-sized tongue that wouldn't stop growing. The poor thing's tongue was so large her parents found out about it before she was even born, during a routine ultrasound scan.
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"When Olivia was born I had less than a minute to hold her before she was rushed through to special care," Emma Gillies, Olivia's mother told the Daily Mail. "It was difficult to be separate from her in those first hours, seeing the other parents on the maternity ward with their children." Gillies claims the first moment she saw her daughter she instantly noticed the overgrown tongue. "Her tongue was protruding from her mouth, but I wasn't shocked. I loved her instantly," she said. You can see the shocking pictures here.
Luckily for this mom and her husband, they were already aware of Olivia's condition before she was even born. The baby was diagnosed with the disease after had a routine scan done at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage when she was seven months pregnant. "They could see her protruding tongue on the scan," she said. "We were told it was an overgrowth disorder–parts of Olivia's body, including her internal organs, would be larger than normal."
Olivia's parents were told from the beginning that their daughter was going to need surgery in order to reduce the size of her tongue. She underwent her first tongue reduction operation when she was just six months old in September 2010 and then required two more operations in March 2011 and March 2012. Doctors are confident that her tongue would now develop normally and today Olivia looks and functions just like a normal child her age. She even had her tracheostomy repaired and she can eat and breath now with no problem.
"She was a little late walking and she is still learning to talk properly–family members can understand but strangers sometimes struggle to follow her. But she it hitting all her milestones more-or-less as expected," the mom added. Olivia looks healthy, beautiful and happy. The 4-year-old is now in school, is doing well and according to her mom "has got lots of friends." I couldn't be any happier for her and her family. Thank goodness everything turned out just fine!
Image via Thinkstock
