Clyne Solano was born in January 2017 in the Philippines with hydranencephaly. In the second trimester the cerebral hemispheres failed to form. What should have been cortex became a membrane filled with cerebrospinal fluid. Brainstem and some deeper structures remained. Most infants with this condition die before or soon after birth; many who live do not reach one year.

His mother, Justine Gatarin, saw small gaps in the top of his skull from the start. In March 2018, when he was a little over a year old, surgeons operated to relieve pressure — typically a shunt or similar drainage so fluid does not keep stretching the head. The pressure fell. The bone did not have a full brain to rest on. As the skull continued to grow, unsupported plates sank inward and two ridges rose where the vault had caved. Tabloids called them “devil horns.” Justine called him an angel and said it broke her heart to watch him suffer.

He needed a feeding tube through the nose and a tube in the airway. Another procedure in November 2018 changed the breathing tube. Reconstructive surgery to reshape the skull was discussed. His mother feared he was too weak. Doctors at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center in Pasig City still spoke of a relatively “good” prognosis given the diagnosis — meaning survival measured in more months or years of total care, not a typical childhood.

Hydranencephaly is not hydrocephalus with a hidden brain waiting to expand. The hemispheres are gone. Surgery manages fluid and airway. It does not grow a cerebrum. The ridges are bone following the empty space. Clyne’s story, as it stood at 22 months, was a child still alive against the usual calendar, a mother selling belongings to keep tubes in place, and a head whose shape advertised what was missing inside.

Sources

• The Sun / The Mirror / Newsweek, November 2018 (Viral Press photographs and interview with Justine Gatarin).
• Cleveland Clinic / StatPearls / Radiopaedia clinical reviews of hydranencephaly (cause, imaging, survival).