A baby was born via C-section in Poplar Bluff on Nov. 23 without any eyes as a result of a rare genetic disorder, according to KFVF 12.
Robert and Taylor Ice, who struggled with infertility before their child, Wrenley, was born, were shocked when doctors informed them their baby had no eyes, KFVF 12 reported.
“The pediatrician’s going over the baby and he just like stops with his examination and looks at us and says, ‘Your daughter doesn’t have any eyes,’ and said it so bluntly, and I just looked at him and said, ‘What do you mean, they’re small?’” Taylor reportedly said.
Baby born without eyes due to genetic disorder so rare there’s ‘better chance of winning the Powerball’ https://t.co/5ri3jjvfYD pic.twitter.com/LZhJujvM2A
— New York Post (@nypost) February 8, 2024
“He goes, ‘No, they aren’t there,’ and I just burst into tears because I just couldn’t fully process what that meant at the time,” Taylor added, according to KFVF 12.
The couple brought their baby to the Children’s Hospital in St. Louis to be evaluated the day of the birth the outlet reported. Medical personnel reportedly could not determine the cause, resulting in Dr. Nate Jensen, a geneticist, being summoned. The baby was diagnosed with PRR-12 haploinsufficiency, a genetic disorder resulting in a range of eye, neurodevelopmental and multisystem irregularities, according to the New York Post. (RELATED: Man Born Without Nose, Right Frontal Lobe Survives 28 Surgeries)
“This is an incredibly rare condition, there’s less than 30 cases in the world,” Jenson stated, KFVF 12 reported.
Jensen said that patients with the PRR-12 disorder are affected on “a spectrum,” explaining that some people with the gene change may only have one eye affected, while others may have both eyes affected like Wrenley, according to the outlet. He reportedly said some patients’ eyes may be smaller than average in size, while others will be “completely absent,” as Wrenley’s are.
“There’s nothing Wrenley’s mother or father did to cause this, there’s nothing either could’ve done to prevent it — it’s totally random,” Jensen stated, according to KFVF 12.