A mother in the UK underwent groundbreaking surgery on her unborn child, who had a rare condition causing his intestines to develop outside his body in the womb. Maisie Savage, a teacher from London, was 26 weeks pregnant when doctors in the United States performed the operation on her baby, named Theo. Theo, who is now five months old and healthy, was diagnosed with gastroschisis, a condition where the abdominal wall does not form correctly, leading to the intestines growing outside the body.
The pioneering surgery involved moving Theo’s intestines back into his abdomen before he was born, making him only the third baby worldwide to undergo this procedure. The complex form of gastroschisis was discovered during Maisie’s routine 20-week scan in the UK. She was then referred to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where doctors were conducting trials to correct the defect before birth, aiming to avoid the need for post-birth surgeries for Theo.
Upon learning about the trial, Maisie and Theo’s father, Josh French, decided to travel to Texas, where the operation took place in November. The procedure included exposing part of the mother’s womb, draining amniotic fluid, filling the womb with CO2 gas to create space, pushing the baby’s organs back into the abdomen, and stitching up both the mother’s abdomen and womb. The surgery was successful, and Theo was born in February, feeding and growing like a normal baby.
Dr. Michael Belfort, who led the medical team, expressed satisfaction with the results and highlighted the remarkable success of the surgery without complications. He mentioned the possibility of making this surgery available in the UK pending successful trials. Professor Paolo de Coppi from Great Ormond Street Hospital also expressed hope for offering this procedure on a larger scale in the near future.