For any parent, their child’s well-being is their biggest priority. Unluckily for Paisley Morrison-Johnson, the doctors had to put her child on ventilator as soon as she was born. Doctors were worried that the child would suffocate. And the cause for suffocation was her unusually large tongue.
Paisley Morrison-Johnson was born in South Dakota, 16 months ago. At the time of her birth, the doctors were shocked to find that her tongue was the size of an adult’s. It was a result of Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome, a rare condition that affects one in nearly 14,000 newborns worldwide.
Her mom, Madison Kienow told Metro,
Her tongue filled up her whole mouth, it was very thick and protruding out of her mouth. It looked she had an adult’s size tongue inside the mouth of a baby.
As soon as Paisley was born, even before the mother could see her daughter, the doctors took her away to put her on a ventilator.
Doctors told us she had one of the largest tongues they had ever seen and that the sooner she had the reduction surgery, the better.
The baby spent her next three and a half months at an ICU, where doctors tried to find out how to correct her condition. Her mother recounts the horror of the early months of her daughter’s life.
Here’s what Madison Kienow told The Telegraph,
“Three weeks pass and Paisley is still laying in her omni bed. We finally get news that she has been positively diagnosed with Beckwith Weidemann syndrome. It was all a fluke, but still what in the world is happening to my innocent baby girl? Try-monthly scans, blood draws, hourly sugar checks, oxygen, surgery after surgery, therapy and more therapy – my princess is still with us. Every day is a blessing to have her here with us enjoying life to its fullest.”
Finally, when she was about 6 months old, Paisley got her first reconstructive surgery, and then got another one, months later. And now that she is completely cured, no one is more delighted than her mother, unsurprisingly.
“I don’t have to worry about her choking, she has started to say words, she can eat adult food, she’s starting to get her teeth now. She took her first step five days ago. She is growing up, and she has so much spunk and personality and love. She’s just amazing,” Kienow told Buzzfeed.
However, the best thing that has happened after the surgery, according to her mother, is that Paisley can smile now.
And oh, what a gorgeous smile.