Baby, 1, born without eyes undergoes 'socket stretching' so he can have ... trends now
A baby from North Carolina who was born without eyes is receiving eye socket-stretching surgery so he can get prosthetics.
Tate Walker, now one, from Reidsville, has anophthalmia, a genetic condition that causes the eyes not to develop in the womb. Doctors missed the issue while his mother was pregnant with him.
The young boy was only diagnosed a day after he was born when he would not open his eyelids. His father, Ryan, said the diagnosis was like a 'punch in the gut', but the family is now raising funds for his health insurance and surgery for his eye sockets.
Tate is currently undergoing therapy where doctors stretch his eye sockets by gradually putting larger balls into them to assist their development and hopefully build them so
Doctors normally stretch eye sockets by putting gradually larger balls into them, encouraging the sockets to widen and not close up. Tate is under
Tate Walker, aged one and from North Carolina, was born without his eyes. It is due to the condition anophthalmia, which can be caused by genetic problems
The baby is pictured above with parents Jahavier, 25, and Ryan, 29. They are fundraising to help cover their son's surgery
Anophthalmia is a rare condition, which affects as few as one in 100,000 babies born in the US every year.
It is caused by a disruption in the development of the optic vesicles around week four of pregnancy, which eventually turn into the optic cups and the different parts that make up the eyeball.
The disruption may be caused by genetics — such as in Tate's case — or environmental factors such as exposure to high levels of mercury or lead.
Sufferers may be born with no eyeballs or with remnants of eye tissue behind the eyelids.
They may also have much smaller eye sockets than normal, making it difficult to apply prosthetics.
No treatment can bring back the eyes, with doctors instead focused on giving babies prosthetics to help them live a relatively normal life.
An eye prosthetic is generally made of plastic and will not restore a person's vision. It will, however, make their face appears more normal and ensure the face develops correctly.
Doctors say children with the condition have a relatively normal life expectancy, providing they don't have other underlying conditions.
Tate was born in December 2021 without issue, but afterward the newborn appeared 'swollen' and 'struggled to open his eyes'.
Doctors told parents Jahavier, 25 and Ryan, 29, that the swelling would go down within 12 hours and then Tate would open his eyes.
But when this did not happen, the then one-day-old went for scans which revealed that he had the condition anophthalmia.
Mr Walker, who works in shipping, said of the diagnosis: 'It was such a shock when we found out.
'All of his pictures and ultrasounds came back clear. Nothing showed up on any of the scans, nothing on the
