An Indian-origin doctor in the US has successfully grown outer ears from rib cartilage in an 8-year-old boy after a series of ‘miraculous’ surgeries. Elijah Bell, a second-grade student at the Frazer Elementary in Stark county, Ohio, was born with bilateral atresia microtia, a rare birth defect where the outer ears are undeveloped, and, in Elijah’s case there were no openings to the middle and inner ear. Dr. Ananth Murthy, director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Akron Children’s Hospital changed Elijah’s life by making ears from Elijah’s rib cartilage.
Besides five surgeries to create the ears, starting when Elijah was just four-year-old, Murthy had to use a skin graft from the boy’s thigh to create a gap between his ears and his head. The final surgery was done on July 28 when Murthy gave Elijah’s ears detailed “hills and valleys”. “The body naturally wants to smooth…
