Baby Born Without Eyeballs Is ‘No Different’ From Other Children, Awaits Loving Family to Adopt Him

(Illustration - Shutterstock)

For a baby like Alexander K, born in Siberia, Russia, to a single mom, life was always going to be a struggle. This young boy was born without eyeballs due to an incredibly rare genetic condition called SOX2 anophthalmia, so rare that he shares it with just two other children in the world. It is thought to affect 1 in every 250,000 pregnancies.

When his mother, unidentified by local media, learned in her third trimester about his condition, she decided to give him for adoption, as she felt she couldn’t care for a blind child. Born in the city of Tomsk in Western Siberia in April 2019, Sasha was taken to the orphanage.

Though Sasha does not have eyes, he has the good fortune to be “completely healthy” in every other way, according to doctors who have evaluated him, per the Siberian Times. All he needs is a loving home and parents who won’t be daunted by his disability.

While Sasha’s birth mother did not feel able to care for him, the doctors and nurses in Tomsk who treated the baby say that he is faring well and developing normally in every other regard. The only other effect of his condition seems to be two cysts on his forehead, which have been determined to be benign and will be removed.

A Tomsk nurse who has taken on the job of Sasha’s daily care, told the Siberian Times, “He is no different to other children, he plays and smiles just like any healthy baby. He loves playing and adores swimming, he is a very cheerful baby indeed.” Recently, the nurse accompanied the boy to St. Petersburg, where he received implants that mimic the shape of eyeballs and will help his face grow normally.

The prosthetics will need to be updated every six months to reflect the baby’s growth and make sure that his face continues to grow normally. While there aren’t any existing treatments that would give him sight currently, research into various forms of bionic eyes has advanced dramatically in recent years. Most artificial vision systems are for people who have intact eyeballs but lack photoreceptors or other components necessary for vision.

©Shutterstock | Designua

While Sasha will first be given up for adoption within Russia, there is a possibility of placing him with a family abroad if no one comes forward. Since 2013, Russia has made it illegal for U.S. adoption service providers to work in the country, so Sasha will not be able to be adopted by an American family, but it is possible that he could be adopted by a family in the European Union area.

All things considered, Sasha is lucky that his condition does not entail any other health conditions as has been the case with a fellow SOX2 anophthalmia sufferer, Archie Gould, of Cromer, Australia. Born to parents Steve and Fiona Gould, who are originally from Scotland, little Archie has been affected by a whole host of other health problems.

She said, as per the Australian website News, “We found out at 33 weeks during a fetal MRI that he would have no eyes, and that brought a lot of shock and anxiety about how he’d be.” When Archie was born, it quickly became clear that he had many more problems than this. In addition to motor dysfunction, he also was born with “severe gross motor delay, mild-to-moderate hearing impairment, and moderate aspiration,” per the Scottish Sun.

Archie’s mom, Fiona, set up a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of his many treatments, after which he has seen many improvements in his abilities, which allowed the Goulds to take him back to Edinburgh when they celebrated their wedding there in the summer of 2018.

Perhaps the only other child in the world who is known to have the same condition is American boy Makkyle Masek, who lives in Brooksville, Florida. His mother, Marion Masek, went through very similar struggles as Archie’s parents, including deciding on what kind of implants he needs to keep his eye sockets naturally shaped, and dealing with serious aspiration issues that make feeding very difficult.

While Makkyle has endured many struggles, including cerebral palsy that caused many motor and speech difficulties, he has also found successes at a school that offers hope for babies like Archie and Sasha. As reported by Spectrum Bay News 9, his mother, Marion, inspired his teacher at Brooksville Elementary School to develop a unique system of 3D-printed “flashcards.”

Speech and language pathologist Maggie Le Doux explained: “All the cards are specific to what he needs, the food is what he likes, what I know he is going to request.” Simply by feeling the different cards and handing one to his teacher, he can make himself understood.

All these advances show that with a lot of love, patience, and medical expertise, there is hope for these babies, who lack eyes but not the ability to survive and even thrive.