Oh boy! Canadian doctors perform world's first in-womb heart surgery

Photo Credit: Kristine Barry/Facebook

New Delhi: In a first, a team of Canadian doctors have conducted a heart surgery on a baby boy while he was still inside the womb.

The infant named Sebastian was diagnosed with two severe congenital heart defects in the womb and his heart was not sufficiently pumping blood and oxygen in his body reportedly.

Medical experts warned his parents, Christopher Havill and Kristine Barry that he may be born blue and silent. However, Sebastian was born pink and screaming in Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital on May 23, 2017, a few days after undergoing world's first in-womb heart surgery.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, dozens of surgeons were involved in the May 18 procedure, which involved inserting a balloon-like contraption into his heart to connect the two chambers.

While the other kinds of in-utero surgery have been performed, the medical team said this is the first instance they know of an in-utero balloon atrial septoplasty, as per reports.

The surgery involves inserting a needle into Kristine's womb, straight into Sebastian's heart, which was guided by an ultrasound. A tiny blow-up balloon was also attached to the end of the needle.

Once inside the womb, doctors made a 3.5mm hole in his atrial septum, allowing blood and oxygen to move freely inside his body. Kristine was just 20 weeks pregnant in early May when she got to know that her baby was diagnosed with severe congenital heart defects.

A week after he was born, the infant was wheeled into the operating theater for an open heart surgery to administer a more permanent division.

Sebastian will need regular check-ups and also further surgery in years to come.