At 30 weeks into her pregnancy, Vicki McKenzie had an ultrasound that showed her developing fetus had critical aortic stenosis, a condition in which the main outlet valve of the left ventricle is severely narrowed.
She was immediately referred Sick Kids and Mount Sinai where doctors explained that waiting to operate after birth would be too risky.
During the 37-minute procedure, doctors inserted the device through the mother’s abdomen and then directly into the baby’s heart to induce proper growth and function – and to prevent the child from dying of heart failure at birth.
Amazingly, the procedure allowed the baby, Océane, to remain safely in utero for another month until she was born on April 15.
“Any procedure you can do to a fetus in utero allows the baby to remain in the best intensive care unit that there is,” said Dr. Greg Ryan of Mount Sinai Hospital.
“It allows the baby to become more mature, so if this baby was delivered early, it faced … all of the complications of prematurity.”
Within an hour of the baby’s birth at Mount Sinai, she was whisked to nearby Sick Kids, where doctors fed another balloon catheter into her heart to further expand the aortic valve. A third followed a couple of weeks later.
Even though this utero surgery has been performed several times in the U.S., this is the first successfully surgery of it’s kind in Canada. The team of doctors attempted the procedure on two other much earlier fetuses. Neither survived.
“We have learned that what was a theoretical possibility is an actual possibility,” said Ryan.
“And we’ve not only seen that we can not just fix the valve, but we’ve seen that the left ventricle can recover. That’s what we were hoping would happen, but we were not entirely certain that it would happen until we saw it.”
Oceane is now doing well and expected to lead a normal childhood.
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My baby girl Stella had the same thing done at Boston Children’s Hospital. She’s 8.5 months old and doing well. She’ll need open heart surgery to fix her aortic valve but is expected to do well. Our surgery was done when I was 24 weeks pregnant. It’s a humbling experience. Good luck to you!
wow! amazing, i hope oceane is doing better.
Dear Laura
I am little Oceane’s mom. I’m utterly touched by your words of encouragement. Thank-you for your personal experience. I would love to get in contact with you and get some feed-back about the whole experience and any advice you may be able to give me. How can we do this?
Vicki Mckenzie
Hi Vicki – I sent you an email. The editor from this site contacted me with your info. I will be more than happy to talk to you about everything. I’m on an email chain too with other moms who’ve gone through the same thing. It’s a great support system. Anything I can help you with, just let me know!
Hi Vicky and Laura. I am 24 weeks pregnant, and the doctor found out that my baby suffers from critical aortic stenosis. I would love to get in contact with you guys about your experiences. I am defastated as they told me that my baby would likely to have surgery as soon as he is born.
Maria
Wow, I am amazed. I hope this brings much hope to parents, this is just the begin but I’ve been waiting for this! My son is now 4 and will need a heart transplant when his heart fails. If this can help prevent the development of HLHS it would be out of this world. Wishing you and your little star all love.
Elisabeth xxx