MUM TELLS OF
WITH just a five per cent chance of survival, unborn Henry Black’s life dangled by the thinnest of threads.
Pioneering surgeon Professor Kypros Nicolaides told mum Emily Smith, then 27 weeks pregnant, that an operation was needed immediately.
Within an hour of diagnosis, and with Emily watching the whole drama unfold on a TV monitor, Prof Nicolaides inserted a tiny balloon into the baby’s windpipe and inflated it so his lungs could continue to develop in the womb.
It may be a cliché, but this was nothing short of a miracle. And while Emily, 32, could watch in awe, the whole world can too after the incredible procedure was filmed for the Bafta-winning Netflix show The Surgeon’s Cut.
The four-part special profiles surgeons from across the globe, including Britain’s Prof Nicolaides, known as the “father” of foetal keyhole operations.
Henry – now 15 months old – was diagnosed in utero with a severe CDH, congenital diaphragmatic hernia – a hole in the diaphragm.
The defect pushes the stomach, intestines and sometimes the liver up into the baby’s chest, affecting lung function.
The op felt like watching a movie about something that was not connected to me EMILY SMITH on the incredible surgery that saved unborn baby
ExTREmE
Emily says: “It was amazing. I watched the whole thing on the TV screen.
“It felt like watching a movie about something not connected to me.
“I cry when I think how it could have been all so different. Even after the operation there was no certainty he would make it after being born. Henry was at the extreme end of severity.
“He had been given a lifeline but his chances were slim. We started looking into getting ready for a funeral because he had just a 5% chance.”
Henry was treated at King’s College Hospital, in Camberwell, South London, in January 2020 as part of an international trial which found the op doubles survival chances.
So far, around 130 British babies have had the procedure.
Researchers hope it will be rolled out on the NHS to help 300 UK kids affected by the condition, fatal in nearly a third of cases.
The Surgeon’s Cut won the specialist factual category at last week’s Bafta Awards. Prof Nicolaides, who has performed womb surgery for 40 years – saving hundreds of babies – is seen joking with Emily in the film.
He offers reassurance as she watches the needle enter her stomach and then into her womb. Mesmerising scenes show him guiding the balloon into place through Henry’s tiny mouth.
Emily was “in tears” when she watched the show on TV in December, adding: “Everything just came back to me.”
She and partner Stuart Black, 41, have four other children between them.
It was at her 20-week scan at Medway Maritime Hospital, close to her home in Chatham, Kent, that an abnormality with Henry was spotted. Due to a risk of miscarriage, medics waited seven weeks to draw fluid from his lung to get a better view. Emily was sent to Prof Nicolaides
at King’s. A diagnosis of right-sided CDH was confirmed after an MRI. “I was scared,” Emily says. “The professor mentioned a new operation that could save his life. When you hear those words you know it’s serious.”
Prof Nicolaides suggested foetal endoscopic tracheal occlusion (FETO), which he developed with Prof Jan Deprest at