A 10-year-old boy from Peoria, Illinois, has to screw his jawbone every morning to help him breathe, talk, and eat properly.
Brycen Wright was born with Goldenhar syndrome, a rare congenital condition characterized by abnormal development of the spine, ear and eye.
But when the smaller side of his jaw stopped growing, it prompted doctors to send the young boy for surgery.
Brycen, who loves baseball, now has a jaw distractor device fitted that his mother Briana winds forward daily.
The device forces apart an area of the right jaw that was separated during surgery to trigger bone growth.
While the device doesn’t cause any pain, Briana said that it has to be wound forward every morning for several weeks.
This will help him speak and eat properly and also relieve his sleep apnea, a sleep disorder in which breathing stops repeatedly.
Brycen was 9 months old when he was diagnosed with Goldenhar syndrome because of his enlarged kidney, underdeveloped ear, and hole in his heart. He didn’t have spinal or vision problems.
In addition to undergoing surgery to repair the hole in his heart and reduce his kidneys, he also had a bone-anchored hearing aid fitted.
“Ultimately, he needed intervention as his sleep apnea was bad and we knew it would only get worse,” mother Briana said of her son’s surgery.
“We wanted to do the surgery in the fall / winter so he would miss the least amount of baseball during his recovery period, they are in off season November to December,” she continued.
“Baseball is his life so we didn’t want to take him away from that any more than we have to!”
The mother also said that the growth of Brycen’s jaw has been stunted and surgery was necessary as it would become more difficult for him to sleep and talk.
“Every day we have to screw his jaw to move it forward really, really slowly,” Briana said.
They will have to do this for 13 weeks then it will be removed.
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