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A baby born with two noses in central Peru is rapidly making headlines around the world. The rare occurrence took place last week in the industrial fishing town of Chimbote, when the boy was delivered via C-section at eight months of gestation.
He has been named Angelito, or Little Angel, and diagnosed with a condition called "Patau Syndrome," the same chromosomal abnormality that causes cleft palate, low-set ears and extra fingers.
In this case, Angelito has two tubular nostrils right between his eyes.
On Monday the boy was transferred to Lima, the country's capital, where he is expected to get plastic surgery at the Hospital del Niño (The Children’s Hospital.)
Doctors say his respiratory system is working properly and remains stable. He is still being fed intravenously though, and there is suspicion his brain is not fully developed.
"He doesn’t have difficulty breathing now, but he will need plastic surgery," said the neonatal doctor Carlos Arrestegui Ramos, who supervised the case in Chimbote.
The concerned parents are pleading for financial help.
“He has his nose split, he breathes better through the mouth,” Angelito’s dad, Hualcas Diego Donayre, told Correo newspaper. “They are waiting on him recovering a bit more, because apparently his brain is not working well.
The family said it does not have the resources to fix the baby’s deformity.
“We don’t have any money,” the 25-year-old dad added. “We are asking for support because we want to see him with a normal face.”
Dr. Ramos added that further tests would be needed to determine how else the boy's mutation has affected his body, according to the Daily Star.
Patau syndrome is a condition caused by a chromosomal abnormality, in which some or all of the cells of the body contain extra genetic material from chromosome 13.
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