Boy given new skull by US surgeons

A seven-year-old Colombian boy has been given a new skull during a six-hour operation in Florida.

The brain of John Esteban Martinez had been contained in a growth almost the size of his skull which ballooned over his left eye.

Surgeons built a new cavity and moved his left eye and socket one inch in a tricky procedure at a Tampa hospital.

The boy had the operation in the US because doctors in Colombia didn't wish to perform the procedure.

Surgeons removed almost his whole skull and nourished the brain with blood flowing from bone and a thin flap of skin that covered it.

They then put a corset on the brain, tightening the organ's covering as they gently squeezed out water so it would fit into the new cavity.

The first 24-hours following the operation are said to be critical, with the main concern being the boy's breathing.

John Jairo Martinez, the boy's father said he had tried without success for six years to get Columbian doctors to repair the condition, called mid-facial cleft syndrome.

In the end, the brain was less than half the size it was before the operation and was sitting in the middle of the head, rather than off to the left side.

Although the brain will settle down, John will always have some deformity and affected mental capacity.