The news of a one-eyed baby born in Yemen has shocked social media. But did you know that a one-eyed baby was born in Indonesia, to be precise in Mandailing Natal Regency, North Sumatra.
He was born on September 13 2018 through the delivery process at the Panyabungan Hospital, Mandailing Natal Regency. Not only having one eye, the baby girl was born without a nose.
The poor baby only survived for 7 hours. After all, his condition had worsened since birth.
The head of the Mandailing Health Office, Natal Syarifuddin, said at the time that the incident was classified as rare. In fact, he said, this is the 7th case that has ever happened worldwide.
The cause of the incident is still not known for certain, only according to doctors it could be due to the rubella virus, or because of drugs, and it could also be due to mercury.
If it is related to the baby's father's work as a miner, it could be. We still have difficulty getting information because the family is still closed," said Syarifuddin.
Both the one-eyed babies born in Yemen and Mandailing Natal have cyclopia, a rare birth defect that occurs when the front part of the brain doesn't divide into the right and left halves.
Quoted from Health Line, babies with cyclopia usually don't have a nose, but have a kind of proboscis (a growth like an imperfect nose), and sometimes it grows over the eyes when the baby is in the womb.
Cyclopia often causes miscarriage or stillbirth. Even though they live after birth, babies with cyclopia usually only survive a matter of hours.
Babies with cyclopia have brain malformations (abnormal development) during early pregnancy. This occurs in about one in 100,000 babies.
This condition can also occur in animals. Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent this condition, and there is no medicine or treatment to cure it.