Womb OPERATE ON UNBORN BABIES wonder workers
BABY Annie is no bigger than a Mars Bar and is having tumour surgery... while still in the womb.
Her mum Becky, who is 17 weeks pregnant, watches on an ultrasound monitor as the surgeons begin.
A laser will zap the tumour – but it will travel just millimetres from Annie’s heart and could kill her.
It is utterly nerve-racking but also jaw-droppingly impressive. And such are the risks, Professor Basky Thilaganathan and Professor Asma Khalil cannot guarantee success.
Prof Thilaganathan, who has worked in fetal medicine for over 20 years, says: “We’re doctors, not gods. It’s not always possible to tell the parents what they want to hear.
“It is important to get the balance between giving hope and being honest about what they can expect.”
The doctors allowed cameras unprecedented access to follow their every move for Baby Surgeons, a Channel 4 documentary on the specialist Fetal Medicine unit at St George’s Hospital in London.
Tiny Annie will die unless the tumour in her left lung – draining blood from her heart – is treated.
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Prof Thilaganathan – the hospital’s Clinical Director for Fetal Medicine – first feeds a microscopic needle through Becky’s womb into Annie, to anaesthetise her.
Once she’s asleep, he uses one hand to hold a transducer over Becky’s tummy to display the baby’s exact position on the ultrasound.
Then, with Becky, 28, wearing protective glasses, he guides a needle into Annie’s lung, checking each move on the monitor.
He passes a laser fibre through the needle and fires a short, sharp energy burst to sear the blood vessel, cutting off its supply so the tumour will eventually die, allowing Annie’s lungs to develop normally.
The baby is barely 95mm long. And Prof Thilaganathan admits: “We were firing a laser four or five millimetres from the heart. We could have killed the baby. Mum was amazing because she was just rock-solid still. Sometimes we take big risks and just hope they pay off.”
The surgery, which incredibly lasts just 10 minutes, is a success.
But for Becky and partner Richard, who live on the Isle of Wight, there is still a nail-biting wait to see how the baby develops.
Thankfully, a healthy Annie is born months later. Dad Richard, 32, admits: “It was really worrying, they just kept talking about her lungs but when she came out she just started breathing. Prof Basky put a laser through her chest and she doesn’t even have a mark, she’s perfect.”
Becky, who also has a five-yearold son Harvey, adds: “She’s completed our family.”
Speaking to the Sunday Mirror, Prof Thilaganathan is uncomfortable with any suggestion his 40-strong team are superheroes.
He says firmly: “I don’t think we’re heroes and miracle workers. I think the team as a whole have learned to care and work with a unified purpose.
“We work with compassion in an extremely difficult area. We can’t correct everything, can’t sort everything out. But we ensure women get the best possible care so that they can have a family. Even our cleaner knows that. Our cleaner doesn’t say, ‘I’m just here to clean the floors’. They’re part of our team. They are part of our success.”
That team ethic was evident during the three-part series, when Prof Thilaganathan joined fellow
I don’t think we are heroes or miracle workers, but we do ensure the best care basky thilaganathan WOMB SURGEON & PROFESSOR
fetal surgeon Prof Khalil to perform an operation never attempted before.
Viewers see them deliver a baby who has a neck tumour enveloping his airway that will kill him the minute he is born.
To save him, they first attempt to use telescopic needles to place tubes in his throat while still in the womb, allowing him to breath during a natural delivery.
But the tumour has moved the baby’s head and the procedure doesn’t work perfectly. In astonishing scenes, they later perform an emergency C-section but only deliver the baby’s head – operating on his nose and throat while he still gets oxygen via the placenta. After opening his airway, they deliver the rest of his body. It is literal life-or-death stuff.
Yet more mind-boggling surgery shows a placenta split to give twins separate blood supplies. And telescopic scissors cut a baby free from membranes threatening to sever its legs and hands in the womb.
Prof Khalil admits: “Every time we interfere with
LIFESAVER Becky has microsurgery nature, we roll the dice and take a chance we can hopefully make things better.
“But we’re under no illusion nature is in control and will ultimately determine how a pregnancy ends.” The team sees more than 35,000 patients a year and the weight of expectation is immense.
Prof Khalil relies on the support of her husband, also a doctor. She adds: “It is challenging sometimes, it’s the only specialty you have three patients at the same time – the baby, the mother and, of course, you also have the partner.
“Unfortunately, we can’t save all babies’ lives. To some extent we must look at a failure as fuel to drive us to be at the cutting edge of change that will make the next outcome successful.”
Father-of-two Prof Thilaganathan releases pressure by going on weekend cycle club rides. Fellow riders have no idea of the complexity of his day job.
TV footage also shows families back home after their baby has arrived – something the docs never see.
Prof Thilaganathan adds: “Mums filmed themselves so for the first time I thought, ‘Wow, we really are changing people’s lives, immeasurably’. It really hit home what we do every day. I’m very grateful for that, it feels like a privilege.”
Every time we interfere with nature we roll the dice and hope to make things better PROF ASMA KHALIL SURGEON IN REMARKABLE NEW TV SHOW
■■Baby Surgeons, 9pm tomorrow, C4