A mother from the UK underwent groundbreaking surgery on her unborn baby to address a condition where the baby’s intestines were located outside the body while still in the womb. Maisie Savage, a 29-year-old teacher from London, was 26 weeks pregnant when doctors in the United States performed the operation on her baby, who is now healthy at five months old. The baby, named Theo, had a condition known as gastroschisis, which resulted in his abdominal wall not forming correctly, causing his intestines to grow outside his body. This prompted doctors to conduct a pioneering procedure to relocate Theo’s intestines back into his abdomen before birth.
Theo is only the third baby worldwide to undergo this innovative clinical trial. The complex form of gastroschisis was discovered by doctors in the UK during a routine 20-week anomaly scan. Subsequently, Maisie was referred from Great Ormond Street Hospital in the UK to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where a team of doctors was conducting trials for a pre-birth procedure to correct the defect, aiming to avoid the need for post-birth surgeries for baby Theo.
Upon learning about the trial, Maisie expressed gratitude for the opportunity it presented, describing it as a lifeline for her baby. She and Theo’s father, Josh French, traveled to Texas after Maisie was informed at 24 weeks into her pregnancy that she needed to stay there until the baby’s birth. Prior to the operation in Texas, Maisie underwent a procedure in Belgium involving the injection of Botox into her baby’s abdominal wall through her womb to facilitate the subsequent surgery.
The pioneering operation took place in November, where surgeons utilized keyhole surgery to expose part of Maisie’s womb, enabling them to move Theo’s organs back into his abdomen before stitching up the area. The procedure was successful, and Theo was born in February without complications. Dr. Michael Belfort, who led the medical team, expressed satisfaction with the results, emphasizing the remarkable outcome of the surgery.
Dr. Belfort suggested that the surgery could potentially be offered in the UK pending the success of the ongoing trials. Professor Paolo de Coppi from Great Ormond Street Hospital expressed hope that the procedure could be made available to a broader range of patients in the near future.