Two year-old Meera Mohammed Rashid from Dubai was born without eyelids. She has a genetic skin condition, called ichthyosis, due to which a person is born with little or no eyelids.
This means her eyes have been open since the day she was born. In fact, she sleeps that way too. She did have lashes though but those were stuck to her eyebrows.
But, now, thanks to the expertise of ophthalmic plastic surgeon Sunil Vasani, the little girl has finally got a pair of eyelids. The skin for the grafting was taken from behind her mother’s ear, the Mid Day reported. Vasani crafted the skin into eyelids and stuck her lashes on them.
On the exacting job of crafting eyelids, Valsani told the newspaper:
I opted to take the skin from the back of the mother’s ear. It was a good match, otherwise I would have to go to a skin bank. It has been taken from behind the ear for cosmetic purposes.
Ichthyosis is from a family of genetic skin disorders characterized by dry, scaling skin that may be thickened or very thin.
Each year, more than 16,000 babies are born with some form of ichthyosis. Most forms of ichthyosis are very rare. The genetic mutation that causes the disorder is passed from parent to child.
(All images from Wikimedia Commons)