Doctors at the renowned Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have added another medical miracle to their long list of accomplishments when they successfully removed a tumor from the heart of an unborn baby.
CBS is reporting on the historic procedure that was recently performed on the tiny fetal heart of Baby Juan. The child’s mother, Cecilia Cella, who is from Uruguay, was five months pregnant when a routine ultrasound showed a mass on the baby’s heart. Her doctor decided to send the images to his friend, Dr. Jack Rychik, who is director of the Fetal Heart Program at CHOP.
“The minute I saw this I recognized there was a giant tumor sitting on the heart,” Rychik told CBS.
When his mother and father, Pablo Paladino, learned surgery was possible, they leaped at the chance to come to Philadelphia in a bid to save their son’s life. Thus far, CHOP is the only place where this risky surgery has ever been performed successfully – and this was only on one other occasion.
It was definitely a risk, but both parents and doctor were willing to take it.
Cella was 21 weeks pregnant when the surgery was performed.
“His heart at the time of surgery was the size of a peanut. The size of the tumor was three-times the size of the heart,” explained Rychik. “Had we waited an additional day, we probably would have been too late.”
After the procedure was complete, the pregnancy continued and the family remained in Philadelphia.
At 31 weeks, on December 11, 2016, Juan was delivered. However, the tumor, which is benign, had grown back, which meant he was subjected to yet another surgery.
“There were a lot of chances the baby was going to die,” said Paladino.
As of today, Juan is three months old and is healthy and thriving, having only a big scar on his chest as a reminder of what he went through.
However, his prognosis is unknown.
“There are no other human beings alive today who have had fetal surgery for this removal of this type of tumor that are 30, 40, 50, 60 years old. We could then say what the prognosis is going to be,” says Dr. Rychik.
Cella and Paladino accept this and are grateful that their son will at least have a chance to live.
Calling this whole experience “crazy, unbelievable,” she says that when she looks at her son, “I can’t believe what they did here. It’s awesome.”
Juan’s father is equally amazed. “We are grateful we came here. The doctors are amazing.”
They family is now back home in Uruguay where little Juan has become a celebrity.
“We receive calls, messages from people we don’t know,” his father said.
“It was a hard time, crazy time, but we are extremely happy how everything was solved.”
Although the cause of this type of tumor, which is usually a fatal condition, is still unknown, the family has reason to hope.
The first survivor of the surgery, Tucker Roussin, is now a healthy four year old!
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