Doctors ‘Jigsaw’ 3-Year-Old’s Skull to Prevent Brain Damage

Outrageous injuries

The next time you complain about a paper cut or headache, consider these injuries

A 3-year-old girl is living a normal life after doctors had to surgically remove pieces of her skull and puzzle them back together to correct a condition that would leave her permanently brain damaged, The Daily Mail Reported.

Phoebe Grimes, of Derbyshire, England, was born with a rare condition called craniosynostosis, where her skull was fused in the womb and would never be able to grow—and eventually crush her brain.

Doctors told Phoebe’s parents when she was 3-months-old that the only option was to cut her skull apart into a zig-zag path from ear to ear and put it back together to release the pressure on her brain and give it enough room to grow.

“I didn't believe them at first, I thought they were making it up. My husband Steve and I really didn't want to put her through that - but we knew deep down we had no choice,” said Claire Grimes, Phoebe’s mother.

During the six-hour operation at Birmingham Children’s hospital, Phoebe’s brain was under so much pressure that when surgeons cut her skull open, the organ popped out.

Now, Phoebe is a happy, healthy little girl. And miraculously, the zig-zag scar across her head healed so well, it doesn’t even show.

'We're thrilled that she is doing so well - the doctors have said her recovery is way ahead of where they expected her to be,” Claire, 34, said.

Phoebe will have yearly checkups until she is 5.

“I feel very lucky that my little girl was able to be saved - despite the rather strange way doctors did so,” Claire said.

Click here to read more from The Daily Mail.