It was recently reported that a 7-week baby girl in Boston is thriving following a successful in utero surgery performed on her before she was born. The girl suffered from a rare brain condition which made this type of in utero surgery the first of its kind.
The girl’s condition, known as vein of Galen malformation, was a serious risk to the girl’s life. At Kenyatta Coleman’s routine 30-week ultrasound scan, her baby’s condition was discovered. Her parents made the decision to participate in a clinical trial run and surgery was performed exactly a month after the condition was discovered.
CNN reports that “for this surgery, there were two patients: Kenyatta and her baby”. In the surgery, the baby was injected with a small amount of medication and pain relief. Doctors then performed incredibly delicate surgery to allow tiny metal coils to fill up the vein, slowing the blood flow caused by her condition and reducing the pressure on her brain.
Two days after the procedure, Kenyatta went into labour and gave birth to her daughter, Denver, on St Patrick’s Day, 17 March. The proud mum said: ““I heard her cry for the first time and that just, I – I can’t even put into words how I felt at that moment… It was just the most beautiful moment being able to hold her, gaze up on her and then hear her cry.”
Doctors were pleased that baby Denver was stable and expressed hoped she will not require any further coils. Now 7 weeks old, she is “spending most of her time sleeping and eating”.
Kenyatta said: “She’s shown us from the very beginning that she was a fighter… she’s demonstrated… Hey, I wanna be here.’”
Story and Photo Credit: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/04/health/brain-surgery-in-utero/index.html
