Tonight’s episode of Baby Surgeons: Delivering Miracles proved to be an emotional rollercoaster, as one woman hoped to save her unborn son who had a tumour.
The new Channel 4 programme focuses on patients in the Fetal Medicine unit at St George’s Hospital in London, which gives parents hope and babies a chance at life.
This evening’s episode followed expectant mother Zoe, whose unborn son had a cystic tumour around his neck.
Even though the tumour was benign, it was pushing against the baby’s airway, which could mean that he wouldn’t be able to breathe for himself once born. It’s a very rare case, affecting around 1 in 20,000 pregnancies.
In an emotional section of the episode, Zoe wrote a letter to her unborn baby.
‘A large tumour is growing around your neck and the doctors are worried you won’t be able to breathe when you’re born,’ she said, reading it aloud.
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‘I don’t want you to suffer. You’re not here yet but that doesn’t matter, you’re part of our family already.’
Professor Basky and the team were planning an operation to insert a breathing tube into Zoe’s baby’s airway while he was still in the womb. It’s a procedure which has never been performed in the UK before.
Unfortunately if the surgery wasn’t a success, the airway would be blocked and could negatively affect the baby, which was clearly difficult news for the parents to hear.
‘My fear is him having a lack of oxygen when he’s born. We just want him to be as healthy as he can be,’ Zoe said.
Her husband added: ‘Without suffering.’
Zoe revealed she decided to call her son Harry after both of her grandads.
Professor Basky explained that if the procedure isn’t successful and they couldn’t create an airway, they were going to undertake a modified caesarean procedure that would allow them to deliver the baby up to his chin and confidently put the breathing tube down.
‘It’s a risky operation, mum can haemorrhage greatly,’ he added.
Unfortunately due to the nature of the procedure, her husband was unable to be in the room.
‘I think today was one of the hardest things in my life, seeing my wife go in there,’ he said.
The first thing the surgeons had to do is put a telescope inside Zoe’s stomach so that they could try and find the nose of the baby.
Unfortunately, they had to halt the operation and had to go with plan B, as they couldn’t get under the tongue.
Even though it was touch and go, the birth was a success, but Harry needed to be put on a ventilator in hopes that he will soon be able to breathe on his own.
In one touching scene, Harry was taken off the ventilator to see if he could breathe without assistance.
Thankfully the young bub could do just that and fast forward eight months we witnessed him looking happy and healthy at home.
Harry still has the benign tumour around his neck but as time goes on it is shrinking all on its own.
All episodes of Baby Surgeons: Delivering Miracles can be watched on E4.
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