Miami doctors saved the baby’s life Lucas Hormachea al operate on him inside his mother’s wombthe Cuban Lainey Ramos Arangoin an unusual surgery performed for the first time in Florida.
And report of Telemundo51 announced the medical milestone happened at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami: Lucas underwent surgery for a malformation of blood vessels in the brain, being in the mother’s womb. The baby was born without complications five weeks later, via cesarean section.
The intrauterine surgerycarried out by doctors from the University of Miami and the Jackson health system, was considered a success and today the child is healthy.
At 32 weeks pregnant, the baby “was diagnosed with a rare abnormality of blood vessels in the brain that can cause heart failure,” the report noted.
Dr. Rodrigo Ruano explained that he had an aneurysm of the vein of Galen, which “can cause problems in his heart, which can fail and Lucas could die.” Surgery was essential.
“My world collapsed on me, because the prognoses were very bad,” confessed the mother, who found herself at the crossroads of deciding to operate on her first child before he was born.
“My first baby, a full-term pregnancy, had no solution, I had to have it, it was very hard,” Ramos admitted, unable to prevent her eyes from filling with tears as she recalled those moments.
Doctors at Jackson Health System’s Holtz Children’s Hospital recommended performing an intrauterine embolization, which would be a first in the state of Florida.
The young mother admitted that she was afraid: “There are very few cases, it scared me,” she told reporter Arly Alfaro. However, she was aware that she was the best choice for her baby.
The intervention was carried out in an operating room specially equipped for intrauterine surgeries, in the Neonatology Department of Jackson Memorial Hospital. According to the report, this type of procedure has been recorded about five times in the world.
The surgeons commented to Telemundo51 some details of the operation. “We were able to put a small needle inside Lucas’s head, directly into the normal vessel, protecting the brain,” explained Dr. Ruano, for whom it was the second surgery of this type.
A few weeks after the intervention, the doctor confirmed that the aneurysm shrank by more than 60%.
For his part, Dr. Robert Starke said: “Normally, this is something we treat after the baby is born, but when the baby is in the womb, we can reverse the heart and lung problems, giving it time for the brain to develop.”
Lucas must return to the hospital for check-up tests, but his mother and doctors are hopeful that he will enjoy a normal life.
