Boston, MA — Loren Davis just had a birthday, his first. If he had been born
a decade earlier, the Manchester, Conn., boy most likely would be dead.
On Nov. 16, 2001, a team of surgeons in Boston pulled Loren's head from his
mother's womb during a cesarean section and, while he still was tethered to
his mother's umbilical cord, attached a heart-lung machine to his neck. Once
the doctors were assured Loren was getting sufficient oxygen, they completed the cesarean and took him to an operating room to remove a tumor the size of a fist that had grown where a lobe of his lung was supposed to be.
“He is our miracle baby,” said Loren's mother, Susan Davis, who at 42 became
a mother for the first time.
For centuries, babies such as Loren with serious birth defects entered the
world stillborn or died soon after birth. Improvements in ultrasound
technology during the last two decades have helped doctors find these
physical handicaps well before birth. But it has been only in the last few
years that doctors have been able to offer parents an option other than
abortion for some of these defects.
In fact, Susan Davis said that a doctor advised her to have an abortion after
her 18-week ultrasound test revealed her baby had congenital cystic
adenomatoid malformation, or CCAM, a growth that blocked the development of the heart and lungs.
Having a deeply-held religious faith, Susan and her husband, Ray Davis,
searched the Internet for alternatives. Their search led them to Boston Children's Hospital, which three years ago opened the Advanced Fetal Care Center.
In Boston, the couple met nurse practitioner Luanne Nemes, who said there
might be surgical options to treat their baby's condition. MRI and advanced
ultrasound imaging tests would determine whether those new techniques could be used to save their baby.
Such imaging technology has been a blessing for many prospective parents,
even if they reveal that medical options are limited, Nemes said.
“Even if they do not get good news, we are able to counsel and prepare
families,” Nemes said. “Historically, these people did not get appropriate
prenatal counseling about what to expect, what the long-term outcomes might be.”
Boston Children's is one of a handful of hospitals across the country that
offer surgery to treat physical problems such as CCAM and congenital
diaphragmatic hernia, a fetal condition in which organs in the abdomen push
through the diaphragm into the chest cavity, preventing normal heart and lung development.
Doctors also are trying surgical techniques on babies before they are born to
correct neural tube defects that can cause conditions such as spina bifida.
Even heart valve repairs can be done while the baby is in the womb.
But surgery cannot save every baby, said Dr. Renee Bobrowski, who sees
several cases a year as a perinatologist at Hartford Hospital.
The Davises knew serious risks were involved. “The doctors told me I might
lose both,” Ray Davis said of his wife and baby.
“They said it was 50-50” that her baby would survive the surgery, said Susan
Davis, who received two blood transfusions during surgery.
Loren decided to come early, precipitating a wild scramble at Children's
Hospital while Ray drove Susan to Boston.
During delivery, four weeks before full term, Loren was connected to an
ECMO–extracorporeal membranous oxygenation–machine, which helped
circulateoxygenated blood throughout his body. The umbilical cord then was
cut and the tumor removed. Loren remained on the machine for five days.
The procedure cost $200,000, of which Ray's insurance “paid only a little,”
the father said.
Doctors have told Loren's parents that his prognosis is excellent.
(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
