Children's craniofacial surgery. Part 1, A fighting chance.

The first in a three-part series following children undergoing craniofacial surgery at the Oxford Craniofacial Unit. Coral is one-year-old and has a rare condition, Crouzon syndrome, which means that her brain is out-growing her skull. She faces life-threatening surgery as her only means of survival. Lauren was born with an extra thumb and a skull that had fused too early, called craniosynostoses. She has had surgery before but now needs surgery again as she is showing signs of having raised brain pressure. Each time her brain grows, she will need surgery on her skull to accommodate it. Baby Daire's skull is grossly mis-shapen due to a condition called Apert syndrome (Acrocephalosyndactylia). He is enormous brain pressure and has to undergo extremely complex surgery as he is so tiny. Five-year-old Ivy was born with much of her skull missing, leaving her brain very exposed. She has a condition so rare, Adams-Oliver syndrome (AOS), that only ten to fifteen children in the world are known to have it. At some point she will have to face a major operation to build her a skull but her parents are unsure about when to take that sort of decision. Throughout, complex surgery is shown and