UK’s youngest patient to receive in-womb transfusion now a ‘chirpy’ one-year-old

An unborn baby boy who received an in-womb blood transfusion at just 16 weeks’ gestation is now a healthy one year-old.

Arthur Ransom, who is thought to be the UK’s youngest ever blood transfusion patient, developed severe anaemia from a parvovirus infection, leading medics at St George’s Hospital in London to perform an intrauterine transfusion of red blood cells.

The procedure is not usually performed until 18 weeks’ gestation, when a baby is larger – but it was successful, and Arthur went on to be born in January 2025.

‘Handsome boy’

Mum Maisie recounted that Arthur, who was the size of an avocado at 16 weeks, was “so small the doctors were working within millimetres”.

She explained that the “experience was absolutely terrifying”, as without the transfusion, “he would not have made it — his organs were failing, his heart was completely enveloped in fluid and it was struggling to pump”.

But she added: “To have the life I am now living, with my family, there’s no words to express the gratitude I feel and how fortunate I was to be able to access that care and blood promptly.”

“Arthur’s doing great now. He’s a really chirpy little boy, reaching all the milestones. He’s very handsome and developing normally.”

Saved lives

Earlier this year, Mum Laura Fricker also told how a blood transfusion saved her own son from parvovirus when she was 17 weeks’ pregnant.

Laura said: “I absolutely had no idea that this could even happen, I’d never ever heard of babies having transfusions.”

Following two life-saving treatments, Sebastian was born healthy and thriving, and is now eight years old.