Today I was surprised to read two news about interventions in babies that have saved their lives.
The first about a 20-week-old gestation baby whose amniotic pouch broke and has been operated inside the mother's womb. A balloon was implanted in the trachea to block the airways and facilitate lung maturation.
It has been an experimental procedure to try to save the life of the baby who cannot live without the protection of the bag and the amniotic fluid. According to Elena Carreras, an expert in fetal surgery at the Vall d'Hebrón Hospital, a pioneer in fetal surgery in Spain, lung development is not the only complication of premature rupture of the bag, so she has been very lucky this girl who already has a little year.
While it should not be taken as a medical procedure, the positive is that the girl has been saved and the case will be a trigger to deepen the investigation of operations of this type.
The second news is about another baby, but in this case of 56 days of life and 4.5 kilos of weight who was implanted in the Hospital Virgen de las Nieves de Granada an automatic defibrillator to correct arrhythmias caused by a pathology congenital heart
It is the first time that a baby of such a young age is placed, in fact although it is the smallest in the world it is a defibrillator for adults, therefore very complex to place in a baby of just two months.
The anomaly, a brachycardia, had been detected in the belly and confirmed at birth, even the baby had suffered a cardiac arrest 23 days after birth from which she was recovered. It is a disorder that presents a significant risk of arrhythmias and can cause the baby to die due to sudden death. Thanks to the defibrillator that will not happen.
Undoubtedly, the success of both operations as well as of the practiced fetal surgery to correct Maria's spina bifida throws a light of hope so that in the future other babies can benefit from them in the same situations.
