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Posted by gl.black@vanderbilt.edu on Friday, September 30, 2011 in Families.

Sydney was born the third baby of a set of triplets. She weighed only 2 ½ pounds when she was born. She has a sister, Savannah, and a brother, Steven.

Over the course of several years, Sydney had three surgeries performed by Dr. Kevin Kelly and the Craniofacial team at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital to correct the irregular growth of the bones in her head. The surgeries took place when she was 2 ½, 3 and 6 ½ years old. Now, thanks to the wonderful staff at the Children’s Hospital, Sydney is a healthy and happy 8-year old who loves school and Irish Step Dancing.

More informationAt 2 years old, a CT-Scan showed the bones on the left side of Sydney’s head had fused prematurely. This meant the right side of her head was still growing, but not the left side. Sydney would require major surgery to correct the growth of her head. It took about 5 ½ hours to create new growth space on the left side of Sydney’s head.

Within months of Sydney’s initial surgery, additional CT-Scans showed that the bones on the right side of Sydney’s head that had previously been growing normally now had fused. Her second surgery was much more extensive than the first. Dr. Kelly basically re-built her skull. He repositioned her eye sockets, created growth space, moved a large portion of the back of her head to her forehead, and used some of Sydney’s own rib bone to stabilize the bones in her head along with lots of plates, screws and pins. This surgery was almost 11 hours. After this surgery, Sydney was fitted with a helmet to help hold everything in position. She wore the helmet 24-hours a day for several months.

During the years since her second surgery we routinely had Sydney’s growth checked. Although everything seemed to be staying in place, there were a few areas that were not fusing completely as they should. At the age of 6 ½, Sydney had her third surgery. Hopefully Sydney will not need any more surgeries, but if she does, we know Dr. Kelly and the staff at the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital will take excellent care of her.

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