Durban - Proud parents Tarryn and Hayden Ford cannot imagine life without their precious little boy, Joel.
And they are the first to acknowledge that, without the miracle of modern medicine and the confidence and expertise of local specialists, their baby would not have survived. He would also not have been able to celebrate his first birthday on Friday.
Joel made medical history last year when he underwent life-saving pinhole surgery at Parklands Hospital before he was born.
Because of the largely experimental operation carried out on pioneer Joel, the lives of at least three other babies have been saved.
Joel had developed a very rare condition called pleural effusion, associated with hydrops fetalis: effectively cardiac failure. Blocked lymphatic ducts in his chest had caused fluid to leak into his torso.
The fluid that was filling his chest cavity was compressing a lung and displacing his heart. Neither was able to grow and his heart was not pumping properly.
His mother’s gynaecologist and obstetrician, Dr Carlos Hartmann, of Netcare’s uMhlanga Hospital first picked up the condition and called in the hospital’s foetal maternal specialist, Dr Ismail Bhorat.
They initially decided to monitor him, but when Joel’s mother reached the 32-week stage of her pregnancy, things took a dramatic turn. The baby was already going into heart failure.
“We knew that if we did not intervene, this baby would die,” Bhorat recalled.
Joel’s parents did not hesitate to give the go-ahead for the operation, the first in the country.
“The doctors gave us hope and that was just what we wanted,” Joel’s mother said.
The medical team, headed by Dr Samad Shaik, a paediatric surgeon at Parklands Hospital, and including Bhorat and Hartmann, assembled and the special equipment needed for the operation - an imported shunt - was flown in overnight.
The pinhole surgery involved using an 18cm-long needle which was inserted through the mother’s uterine wall and then guided through a space in the baby’s ribs and into his chest cavity.
The fluid was then drained out into his mother’s amniotic fluid and the shunt was inserted down through the needle. When the needle was withdrawn, the shunt was left in place to continue draining the fluid.
The shunt continued its life-saving work until Joel was born by Caesarean section. It was clamped off just before he was delivered at uMhlanga Hospital.
The beautiful blue-eyed boy has had no after-effects and is now the picture of health.
In the wake of Joel’s successful operation, Shaik and Bhorat have set up a foetal surgery unit that works with a woman’s own gynaecologist and obstetrician.
“It is like a quick response team. When this condition occurs, you have to act pretty quickly. We also have shunts available here now and that is a huge advantage,” said Bhorat.
“What we are learning from all this is that the foetus is very, very strong.”
Doctors around the country are now contacting the medical team in similar cases.
The lives of at least three babies have already been saved and one baby, who has undergone similar pinhole surgery, will be born to an eManzimtoti mother today.
Joel, whose story featured Carte Blanche, celebrated his birthday with staff of uMhlanga Hospital, and shared the treats laid on for him with disadvantaged pupils of the Natest Primary School in Mount Edgecombe.
Daily News