Baby thriving after in-womb surgery to fix organs growing outside his body

A five-month-old baby is home with his family following in-womb surgery to carefully push his intestines back inside his body.

Following her baby’s diagnosis of gastroschisis at a routine 20-week scan, London-based mum Maisie flew to Belgium and Texas so that her son Theo could undergo keyhole surgery while still in the womb to correct the condition where the intestines develop outside the body. Theo was carried to term and born healthy after the successful treatment, which he is only the third person in the world to receive.

Great Ormond Street Hospital hope to offer the surgery in the UK if it passes the clinical trial. Gastroschisis currently affects one in 3,000 babies in the UK, and one in ten babies do not survive it.

‘Worth it’

Mum Maisie, 29, shared that “It was a huge decision” to participate in the US-based clinical trial.

At 24 weeks gestation, the couple were referred to doctors at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston when they learnt that Theo’s condition was more complex than expected. The surgery then took place two weeks later.

Dad Josh explained: “The length of that day, it felt like a week”, he added, “The waiting and just not knowing exactly what was going on at each and every stage.”

Maisie called the recovery “hard” but “worth it”. Her womb was partially exposed for the surgery and then sealed with Theo still inside so that he could continue developing.

‘Couldn’t be happier’

Theo is now back home in London, aged five months.

His mum said: “Everything they did just completely reversed what could have been a really horrible start to his life and he’s just the best.”

Josh thanked all the doctors and medics in London and abroad, saying: “they made a very traumatic time of our lives so much easier, and we’ve got this little man – we couldn’t be happier”.

Life-saving innovation

The team who treated Theo at Texas Children’s Hospital was led by obstetrician and gynaecologist-in-chief Dr Michael Belfort, who said it was “just remarkable” that there were “zero complications during the foetal surgery and after the foetal surgery”.

Dr Belfort noted that the clinical trial, which currently treats gastroschisis, may open up opportunities to perform “certain cardiac surgeries in utero, and I think we can also do some lung surgeries in utero”.

Reflecting on the opportunities to help babies still inside the womb, he stated: “The inside of the uterus is now a new surgical space for innovation”.