Girl born with no lower jaw bone, undergoes 11 surgeries to rebuild her face

Lexi Melton, a 7-year-old girl was born with a rare congenital condition having no lower jaw. This rare genetic condition called auriculocondylar syndrome was detected by doctors when she was in her mother’s womb. The little girl from Seattle has undergone 11 surgeries to reconstruct her face since her birth in November 2008.

“It was very terrifying. The doctors were pretty optimistic about her ability to survive – but of course nobody could give any guarantees.” Mrs Melton told a leading daily.

Lexi was born with normal mind and body but with a malformed jaw. For the first few months of her life Lexi underwent numerous procedures to help her breathe easily.

The only option that doctors were remained with was to insert tracheostemy tube to help her to breathe. Since then she has undergone 11 surgeries on her jaw only.

According to Mrs Melton, the young kid has a spunky and outgoing personality, she always wanted to speak and her language development was also normal.

Lexi currently has a feeding tube in her stomach from which she receives nutrients each day. Doctors say, her next surgery in 2017 will be dedicated to the jaw joints.

Since her reconstructed jaw will not be able to grow with the rest of her body., the girl will have to undergo more surgeries for roughly the next decade until she stops growing at the age of 17.

A cheerful Lexi

When she was born Lexi was not able to breathe on her own. For the first several years of her life, she had to breathe through a tracheostemy tube which made it even more difficult for her to speak.

Lexi with her mother

According to her mother, Mrs Melton Lexi had continual health problems between surgeries - because of both her tracheostomy tube and time spent in the hospital. At the moment, she has limited mobility in her jaw helping her speak – but not enough so that she can chew food.