(Sept. 18) - A British boy born without an ear now has a newly constructed one thanks to a series of cutting-edge surgeries.
Mitchell Ravenscroft, 12, was born with microtia, a condition that left him without an ear hole and just a flap of skin on the right side of his head, according to report in London's Daily Mail.
At age 9, he declined the option of having an artificial ear attached to his skull with titanium screws. Instead Mitchell endured a three-year series of extensive and painful operations to create an ear from rib cartilage and skin grafts.
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"I love my new ear and it was worth the pain," Mitchell said in the British newspaper The Sun. "My dad promised me a new pair of Oakley sunglasses when the operations were finished and I haven't let him forget."
His father Graham, 43, may get a break on the shades because Oakley is sending Mitchell a free pair of designer sunglasses after hearing about his ordeal.
His chief surgeon, Walid Sabbagh, said the complex procedure his team in London performed could not have been done a few years ago.
"The advantage of this technique is that the new ear develops a blood supply and becomes a permanent part of the patient," Sabbagh told the Daily Mail. "The technique has advanced in the past decade and it is now possible to achieve consistently good results as in Mitchell's case."
The process began in 2006, when Mitchell underwent an eight-hour operation to extract three pieces of cartilage from his rib cage. Doctors used the tissue and stainless steel wire to fashion the framework of an ear and later inserted it into a pocket of skin on the side of the boy's head.
This August, surgeons performed a procedure to draw the ear out from under his skin and prop it forward using extra cartilage and skin grafts from other parts of Mitchell's face.
"He has become really confident and is thrilled with his new ear," his father told the Daily Mail. "Being a boy, he is even quite proud of his scars."
For more on this story, check out Daily Mail.
