Meet with Eli "The Beautiful Baby Without Nose"

        Hello Eli ..

Eli was born March 4 in Alabama, but it wasn’t until doctors handed him to his mother, Brandi McGlathery, that she realized he had no nose.

At first the doctors tried reassuring her, insisting that everything went well. But she knew that Eli looked different and finally she said it.

“He doesn’t have a nose.”

The doctors looked at the baby, then took him from McGlathery’s arms and rushed off with him. She began panicking.

“I did not know what was going on,” the 23-year-old mother told TODAY.

“All I thought of was he didn’t have a nose and I was thinking, how is he breathing?”

No one returned to the room for 10 minutes and she worried something was terribly wrong.

When Dr. Craig Brown returned, she knew he had bad news. She had been right: Eli did not have a nose. And, doctors at South Baldwin Hospital in Foley, Alabama had never seen a case like it.

Eli was born with congenital arhinia, a condition so rare that there are only 41 known cases worldwide, according to researchers in a 2012 report. 

Doctors transferred Eli to USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital in Mobile. Doctors there were just as baffled, but they decided to treat Eli like he had a respiratory condition. While Eli instinctively knew to breathe out of his mouth, he struggled to breathe during feedings. A tracheotomy helped him eat without struggling for breath.  

Meanwhile, McGlathery spent a restless night, calling the emergency number to ask about Eli every 30 minutes. She started every conversation by asking, “Is he still alive?”

“We still didn’t know what was wrong with him or what happened. I didn’t know if he was going to make it through the night,” she said.

Eli was 5 days old when doctors performed a tracheotomy to assist with his breathing, and since then “he’s been a much happier baby,” McGlathery told the paper.

Because of the procedure, however, Eli doesn’t make a noise when he cries and his mother must keep a constant eye on him.

Known as congenital arhinia, the malformation is extremely rare.

According to a 2014 article published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine on a similar case, at the time, there had been only 43 recorded cases of congenital arhinia since the first was reported in 1931.

It can potentially be life-threatening by causing breathing and feeding problems, but there are known cases of babies making it well into adulthood.

The chances of being born with the malformation, his mother said, is 1 in 197 million.

“He’s perfect the way he is.”

McGlathery told the Press-Register she’s already made contact with parents who have had children born without a nose and other patients who have grown up with the malformation.

She and a lactation consultant researched online together on how breastfeed Eli after the tracheotomy, and she has consulted with doctors on what she and her family will have to know to care for the baby at home.

Meanwhile, McGlathery told the Press-Register that she and Eli’s father, Troy Thompson, have decided not to do any plastic surgery until he grows up and decides on his own whether to go that route.

“Until the day he wants to have a nose, we don’t want to touch him,” she told thenewspaper. “We have to take it day by day.”

Until then, McGlathery said, “he’s perfect the way he is.”

Eli’s story has spread online, with one friend creating a Facebook page to keep everyone updated on the family’s progress.

Check On Facebook Eli's Story :)

And since the family now faces years of surgeries and expensive medical costs, family friends set up a GoFundMe page to raise money.

As of Tuesday evening, more than $5,000 had been raised.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Eli got to go home.

Eli you so amazing. You beautiful. Keep strong !!  We Love You  Y :)