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In a pioneering medical achievement, doctors successfully performed surgery on an unborn baby to correct a serious birth defect while he was still in the womb. Maisie Savage, a 29-year-old expectant mother from London, underwent the groundbreaking procedure in the United States when she was 26 weeks pregnant. Her son, Theo, who is now five months old and thriving, was diagnosed with gastroschisis—a condition where the abdominal wall does not develop properly, causing the intestines to grow outside the body.
The innovative surgery involved partially exposing Maisie’s uterus and using keyhole techniques to gently push Theo’s intestines back inside his abdomen, which was then carefully closed. This case marks Theo as only the third baby worldwide to receive treatment through this novel clinical trial. Both Maisie and Theo’s father, Josh French, described the experience as both terrifying and miraculous. Maisie reflected, “He’s a little miracle, isn’t he?” while acknowledging the severity of the condition, which affects approximately one in 3,000 babies in the UK annually.
Before the surgery, the couple had no indication that their baby faced any health challenges. “Going towards a 20-week scan, we were purely just excited to have an image of our baby,” Josh shared. Following the diagnosis of complex gastroschisis at 24 weeks, specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital referred the family to Texas Children’s Hospital, where a team of fetal and pediatric surgeons, led by Dr. Michael Belfort, conducted the pioneering procedure. Dr. Belfort, who had
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