The mum of a seven-year-old boy with a rare genetic condition says life-changing surgery means he is finally able to have his very first sleepover.<\/p>\n
William, from Bath in Somerset, has Treacher Collins syndrome which is a condition that affects the growth of a child’s skull and facial bones.<\/p>\n
In May, he underwent an eight-hour surgery where doctors rebuilt his jaw using bone grafts from his ribs – allowing him to breathe, eat and swallow independently.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Now he’s looking at his eighth birthday with his world opening up,\u00a0\u00bb said William’s mum Kate.<\/p>\n
Kate told BBC Radio Bristol that William has a \u00ab\u00a0severe\u00a0\u00bb case of Treacher Collins syndrome, which disrupted the development of his bones and caused his airways to be blocked.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0From birth he struggled to breathe and was given a tracheostomy at two-weeks-old,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
A tracheostomy is a procedure where a hole is made at the front of the neck and a tube is inserted through the opening.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It is taken very seriously, he had to be with someone at all times who knew what to do in the event of an emergency,\u00a0\u00bb Kate added.<\/p>\n
Surgeons at Bristol Children’s Hospital have successfully reversed the procedure, removing William’s breathing tube and taking a small part of bone from his ribs to create new jaw joints.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0A frame was put into his lower jaw and we were turning these screws to try and artificially pull it forwards,\u00a0\u00bb Kate said.<\/p>\n
The surgery means William no longer needs to be constantly supervised by an adult who knows what to do if he stops breathing.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0He’s desperate to go down water slides and he’s lined up his little besties to have sleepovers and to go on play dates,\u00a0\u00bb she said.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0On his first sleepover I think I won’t sleep a wink that whole night, it will be enormous but for all the right reasons.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The mum of a seven-year-old boy with a rare genetic condition says life-changing surgery means he is finally able to have his very first sleepover. William, from Bath in Somerset, has Treacher Collins syndrome which is a condition that affects the growth of a child’s skull and facial bones. In May, he underwent an eight-hour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}