Juliana Wetmore was born in March 2003 with an extreme form of Treacher Collins syndrome, a genetic condition (most often TCOF1) that disrupts development of the cheekbones, jaws, eye sockets, ears, and related soft tissue. Reports from her parents and surgeons said she was missing roughly 30 to 40 percent of the bones of the face. There was no functional nasal airway, almost no upper or lower jaw as usually formed, and severe ear anomalies. Her mother, Tami, asked in the delivery room where her daughter’s face was. Breathing and feeding were immediately life-threatening. She received a tracheostomy and a feeding tube. Intelligence in Treacher Collins is typically normal; Juliana’s brain was not the problem. Incidence of the syndrome is often cited near 1 in 10,000 to 50,000 births; her presentation was described by craniofacial teams as among the most severe they had seen.

Reconstruction began in infancy at centers including Miami Children’s Hospital under surgeons such as Dr. Anthony Wolfe. Procedures used rib grafts and other bone and soft-tissue transfers, mandibular distraction, eyelid support, and later a bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA). By age 11 media tallied about 45 operations—functional work first (airway, feeding, eye protection), not cosmetics. She learned to communicate with speech and sign, attended school, and played instruments including violin and recorder. She told her parents she was satisfied with how she looked. A trach and feeding support remained part of daily life for years; the hope was eventual independence from tubes, not a typical face.

Tami and Thom Wetmore later searched “Treacher Collins adoptions,” found Danica in a Ukrainian orphanage—milder TCS, deaf, unvisited for years—and adopted her. They also adopted other children. The sisters signed together and shared a condition the family already knew how to live with. Public reaction to Juliana’s early photos included cruelty; her parents used the attention to argue for ordinary school and against the idea that a child this different should not have been born.

Treacher Collins is not a progressive brain disease. It is a structural problem of the first and second branchial arches. Surgery can build a safer airway and a more protected orbit. It cannot manufacture a standard childhood. Juliana’s story is long-term airway care, a high surgery count, normal cognition, and a family that chose more children with similar faces rather than fewer.

Sources
First Coast News / 13NewsNow profiles of Juliana at age 11; USA Today and The Mighty on the Wetmore adoptions; contemporaneous craniofacial documentary and Miami Children’s coverage of early reconstruction.