A mother from the UK underwent groundbreaking surgery on her unborn child who had a rare condition where the intestines were developing outside the 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, Theo, who is now five months old and healthy. Theo had a condition known as gastroschisis, which resulted in his intestines growing outside his body due to an abnormality in his belly button formation.
This procedure, which involved moving Theo’s intestines back into his abdomen before birth, was only the third of its kind in the world. Doctors in the UK identified the complex form of gastroschisis during a routine 20-week scan, prompting Maisie to seek treatment at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. The medical team there had initiated trials for correcting the defect before birth, aiming to avoid the need for post-birth surgeries for baby Theo.
Initially, Maisie had to travel to Leuven Hospital in Belgium for a specialized procedure involving Botox injections to prepare for the surgery in Texas. With her partner, Josh French, Maisie traveled to the US for the operation in November. The procedure, a pioneering approach involving keyhole surgery, required surgeons to create more space in the womb by filling it with CO2 gas and then repositioning the baby’s organs back into the abdomen.
Following a successful surgery, Theo was born in February, feeding and growing like a normal baby. Dr. Michael Belfort, the lead surgeon, expressed satisfaction with the results, highlighting the absence of complications during and after the fetal surgery. He mentioned the potential for this surgical technique to be available in the UK pending successful trials. Professor Paolo de Coppi from Great Ormond Street Hospital also expressed hope for wider implementation of this innovative procedure in the near future.