A Feel Good Story...

[Hanxter]

every once in a while, lately a great while, a "feel good" story comes around and i think this ranks right up there...

A “miracle” 18-day-old baby named Grace is heading home today, nearly three months after Hub doctors performed an unprecedented life-saving procedure on her grape-sized heart while she was nestled in her mother’s womb.

“It truly is a miracle she’s here,” a tearful Angela VanDerwerken said yesterday while cradling her newborn at Children’s Hospital. “She’s definitely a fighter. She’s amazing. She’s amazing Grace.”

When the Ashburn, Va., mother was pregnant with Grace, her fourth child, doctors determined her unborn baby had a congenital heart defect. Her heart’s main pumping chamber wasn’t developing, and she didn’t have a passage between the upper chambers in her heart, a condition that causes blood to back up into her lungs.

Even worse, doctors told Angela and Jay VanDerwerken their unborn baby would have to undergo open-heart surgery immediately after birth and the chances of her surviving were only 20 percent.

But last November, a team of doctors from Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital inserted a fine needle through the pregnant mother’s belly and uterus, placing a tiny stent into the heart of the 30-week-old fetus.

The operating room erupted in cheers when the monitor showed blood flowing through the stent. Grace - the first fetus in the world to get a stent - was born nine weeks later, on Jan. 10. She was a “healthy pink” and had no signs of lung damage.

“She has exceeded all expectations,” said Dr. Emile Bacha, a cardiologist at Children’s Hospital.

linkage

it's truely amazing that a procedure such as this succeeded on such a fragile little thing... my heart a best wishes go out to this kid...

i'm such a sucker for this kinda stuff... her name suits her

[Marvelous Marv]

Originally Posted by Hanxter

every once in a while, lately a great while, a "feel good" story comes around and i think this ranks right up there...



linkage

it's truely amazing that a procedure such as this succeeded on such a fragile little thing... my heart a best wishes go out to this kid...

i'm such a sucker for this kinda stuff... her name suits her

Yes, there's a picture that's been floating around e-mail since 2003 that shows a kid's thumbnail-size hand flopped out of a uterus during surgery. The story that goes along with it (that the kid squeezed the surgeon's hand) is false.

This would be a lively starting point for a discussion about why the mother didn't just abort the child. After all, it would be so much easier.

edit: image removed - we've been there before

[Hanxter]

i don't see your point let alone the comparison

[Hash_Browns]

Hanxter, Thank you so much for sharing. It made me happy to be living in a time when anything is possible! I hope to hear that many good things come to life for this little girl!

Originally Posted by Marvelous Marv

This would be a lively starting point for a discussion about why the mother didn't just abort the child. After all, it would be so much easier.

I'm just floored... After reading what I had previously written it just wasn't necessary...so I will just say wow...it amazes me how some people think.