Baby born with adult tongue can finally smile after life-changing surgery

A baby, born with an oversized tongue has undergone a life saving surgery and is finally able to smile, breathe and eat unaided after one year.

Paiseley Morrison-Johnson from Aberdeen in South Dakota, was born with Beckwith Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS), so for the first week of her life she needed breathing apparatus just to stay alive. Without it, she could have choked to death.
The disorder, which reportedly affects one in every 11,000 births worldwide, meant that the baby’s tongue had grown to more than twice the size of her mouth.



Doctors had to fit a gastronomy-tube to feed Paisley while revealing it was the largest tongue they’d ever seen.
Her tongue continued to grow back and still hung out of her month after the surgery despite slicing parts of it away.
However in April, Paisley, who is now 16-months-old had her second tongue reduction and has since smiled for the first time – after having a total of more than six inches of muscle removed.
Her mom, 21-year-old Madison Kienow, said:

 



‘Her tongue filled up her whole mouth, it was very thick and protruding out of her mouth. It looked she had an adult’s size tongue inside the mouth of a baby.
‘Her tongue was constantly sticking out, she was always chewing on her tongue because it took up so much room in her mouth.

‘Doctors told us she had one of the largest tongues they had ever seen and that the sooner she had reduction surgery the better.


‘At six months old the surgeon removed two inches of her tongue. They cut the tongue through the middle and took cut portions out of the sides.
‘But after her first surgery it looked like her tongue had grown back to its original size and was really bothering us.
‘During her second reduction surgery a massive amount of her tongue was removed and thankfully now it goes completely into her mouth.
‘Since recovering she smiled for the very first time, I couldn’t believe it and was shocked by how beautiful my little girl looked.



‘She’s like a completely new baby – her facial features look different, she smiles a lot and she has even getting close to saying her first words.
‘She couldn’t even make the sounds to say words like ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ before because of the size of her tongue so this feels like a massive achievement.’
Doctors hope that Paisley won’t need further tongue reduction surgery and are now monitoring for other risks associated to Beckwith Wiedemann Syndrome.
Children with the condition have a 7% to 25% of developing cancerous tumours and so Paisley will have ultrasounds and bloodwork every three months until she’s eight-years-old when the risk significantly drops.