Baby Born With Part of His Brain And Skull Missing Celebrates His First Birthday

Born with most of his brain and skull missing, baby Jaxon Emmett Buell was not expected to live. In fact his parents had been told to abort him when doctors discovered his condition.

But he has defied all odds – and now he has just celebrated his first birthday.

30 year old Brandon and 27 year old Brittany Buell, were told by doctors that he had an extreme brain malformation, which meant he would probably not survive the pregnancy.

Jaxon was initially diagnosed as having Anencephaly, a neural tube birth defect in which a child is born without parts of the brain and skull, but doctors were still unsure of how severe his condition would be.

Brandon, said:’After our second ultrasound at 17 weeks, when we found out he was a boy, we knew something was up when the ultrasound technician went towards his head and went very quiet.’

‘Brittany got the call the next day from the doctors saying there was a concern with the MRI results. She was in tears and told me there was an issue with the baby. Of course, I lost it at work so they sent me home and the rest of the day was a blur truly.’

For the next few weeks, the anxious couple were transferred between doctors and given five possible conditions of what it could be. Spina bifida, Dandy-walker syndrome and Joubert syndrome
Doctors gave them the option to terminate the pregnancy at 23 weeks but they refused.

Brandon said: We went home that night thinking if you are telling us to abort, we would never know what Jaxon could have been, if he could have survived.’

‘Who are we to decide? We were given a child, we are given a chance and we have to be his voice.’
‘We did everything we could to give him a fighting chance and all he’s done since being born is fight right back.’
Brittany said: ‘I was devastated. It was heart breaking because something I always wanted my whole life was happening, but then I was told there was a possibility it might be a stillborn.
‘It took all the joy away from me. The happiness that normal women have when they are pregnant – I had none of that.’