Noah Wall was born with just two per cent of his brain but now has 80 per cent. Photo / ITV
A UK boy who was born without a brain has defied the odds to survive after his brain "grew back" as he got older.
When doctors discovered that he had no brain during a couple's pregnancy, Shelley and Rob Wall were advised on five different occasions to terminate the baby.
Doctors told the parents that Noah would be severely mentally disabled and unable to talk, see, hear or eat.
However, thankfully they decided to stick to their guns and continue with the pregnancy.
From there he has learned how to sit up unaided and even managed to go surfing.
Noah is now determined to learn how to walk and wants to continue learning how to surf and even start skiing.
The treatment that Noah's been having in Australia is called "neurophysics" — a mixture of physiotherapy and cognitive exercises.
Noah's father explained that they were lucky to be able to convince the centre to take on Noah as experts don't usually do give the therapy to kids because of the cognitive side of thing. Now, Noah is prepared for cognitive treatment when he is old enough.
"It's all to do with the brain's ability to heal or correct the body's nervous system."
In the womb, Noah had spina bifida and only two per cent of his brain had developed.
Yet when he was 3, Noah baffled the medical community when a new scan found dramatic brain growth, with him having 80 per cent brain mass.
Rob Wall said that many experts believed there was no brain there in the first place, however others believed that the brain had been squashed into a small space and that after a shunt was fitted, it grew back to where it should have been.
"Even if his brain had been so squashed up, he'd be severely mentally disabled because of all that damage and look at him — he's as bright as a button," said Wall.
The father said that since they were older parents they were determined to resist the doctor's calls to terminate the pregnancy.