[SpeavaJap]

New lease of life for 'mouthless' boy

Imagine not being able to open your mouth, ever. Imagine not being able to eat or drink, talk or smile with your mouth.

For little Seng Sophea, born in July 2005 in a remote village in Cambodia, that was the only reality he knew.

Since birth, he could not open his mouth. He was born with an extremely rare condition called syngnathia where his upper and lower jaw were fused by bone and fibrous tissue.

There have been only 25 such cases recorded worldwide, say doctors. And half of them have died.

The only reason Sophea is alive today is a tiny slit made in his gum just after he was born.

The birth attendant used a knife to cut a small slit in the right side of his gum where there was no bone fusing the upper and lower jaw.

Since then, Sophea, who is known fondly in his family as Tot, has survived by drinking through his nose and pouring pureed food through the slit.



Seng Sophea before and surgery
His doting father kept the boy close to him and fed him sweetened milk through a straw.

He is also missing a right hand and does not have any toes on his right foot.

Just six months ago, Tot learnt how to push food like rice into the slit.

He also learnt how to rub a piece of chicken on his gum until it was soft enough to be pushed through the slit. As a result, Tot is tiny. He looks like a very thin four-year-old.

At the beginning of this year, things changed drastically for him. He came to Singapore and had surgery. For the first time in his life, he could open his mouth.

His farmer parents are overjoyed. They had been trying to help their son for so long with no success that the events of the last two weeks have been a little overwhelming.

Tot's maternal uncle, Chea Kimthan, 31, works at World Vision Cambodia as a sponsorship project coordinator.