Seeing your child smile is one of the most precious things in life. However, sadly, it’s not something that should be taken for granted. Just ask Victoria LaBrie, who gave birth to daughter Hazel in December 2024. She understood straight away that something wasn’t right, as her child couldn’t close her eyes or smile

Victoria LaBrie has shared the heartbreaking moment she understood that her newborn daughter, Hazel, was unable to smile or close her eyes due to a rare disorder.

In December 2024, she gave birth to Hazel. Already at 20 weeks pregnant, doctors had told her that there were possible issues with her pregnancy.

“They thought her brain had fused together. It was actually suggested or more so, kind of like, here’s grief packets type of thing,” Victoria told Fox. “What are you wanting to do? And it took a lot of testing to get to the point where we found out that that wasn’t the issue.”

“Her eyes were wide open on an ultrasound and we would always just talk about how cute it was. Like, wow, who gets to see that? Not many people. But then it happened again. And it’s like, wow, that’s luck.”

It turned out that Hazel suffered from a rare brain disorder. Moebius syndrome is an incurable disorder that causes facial paralysis and the inability to blink.

Mom Victoria LaBrie’s daughter Hazel couldn’t smile or close her eyes
According to the Moebius Syndrome Foundation, it occurs when cranial nerves fail to develop properly during pregnancy. It’s estimated that 2 to 20 cases occur per 1 million births.

In an interview with Inside Edition, Victoria LaBrie revealed the heartbreaking moment she learned of her daughter’s diagnosis.

“As soon as they handed her to me and I saw her eyes opened, I knew something wasn’t right,” the mother of five recalled. “It took about two weeks of testing, MRIs, EMGs, all of the above, to find out it was Moebius syndrome.”

Hazel has had multiple brain surgeries. The little girl also lives with another neurological condition called Hydrocephalus, caused by an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the brain.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s 7-year-old twin daughters, Harley and Harper, are autistic, her five-year-old Colton is an autistic savant, and her 14-year-old sister, whom she adopted, has ADHD.

Victoria LaBrie has shared her experiences with Hazel and her other children on social media, garnering millions of views. Although the 31-year-old mother has endured much heartache, she wants to help others in the same situation.

Created GoFundMe page
“She is lifting hearts. People are saying that I didn’t know I needed to be grateful for blinking,” Victoria said about Hazel. “Families everywhere are going to know who Hazel is, and I can rest easy knowing that if we’re loud and proud about what she has going on that these families are talking about it to their children.”

Her mother has set up a GoFundMe page to help Victoria find a home with her “five special needs kids.” At the time of writing, she’s raised roughly $7000.