A two-year-old boy's skull was broken apart and put back together “like a jigsaw” after an operation to stop his brain being crushed.<br /><br />Beau Harrison was diagnosed with craniosynostosis when he was just 18 months old.<br /><br />The rare condition, affecting one in 2,500 babies, is caused when joints in the skull fuse together too early, meaning there is not enough room for the brain to grow.<br /><br />If left untreated, it can crush parts of the brain, leading to an unusually-shaped head, learning difficulties, eye problems and, in rare cases, death.<br /><br />During Beau's painstaking 11-hour operation this year, surgeons at Sheffield Children's Hospital dismantled and rebuilt his skull piece-by-piece.<br /><br />The procedure created a gap in his skull to allow his brain to grow properly. <br /><br />The toddler is expected to make a full recovery following the surgery, which has left him with a giant zig-zag scar across his head. <br /><br />Doctors first realised something was wrong just days after Beau was born and treated him for hydrocephalus, or excess fluid on the brain.<br /><br />Surgeons inserted a shunt into his head when he was days old.<br /><br />Mum Shannon Wong, 27, of Cleethorpes, Lincs., said: “There are no words to describe how I felt, but after a two-and-a-half week stay in the hospital and multiple infections, he was discharged. <br /><br />“I thought everything would get better after that, but within a week we were back being told he had fluid on his brain.<br /><br />“He was initially diagnosed with hydrocephalus, so they had to perform emergency surgery to insert a shunt.”<br /><br />Beau’s health deteriorated and he started suffering from seizures so underwent more tests which revealed the real cause of his symptoms.
