A team of doctors has successfully repaired a serious birth defect in an unborn baby while he was still inside his mother’s womb, marking a major step forward in fetal medicine and opening the door to treating more life-threatening conditions before birth.
The procedure was carried out on baby Theo Savage when his mother, Maisie Savage, was 26 weeks pregnant. Theo was diagnosed with complex gastroschisis, a rare condition in which a baby’s abdominal wall does not form properly, leaving the intestines outside the body.
Instead of waiting until after birth for surgery, doctors performed a pioneering keyhole operation inside the womb. They carefully returned Theo’s intestines into his abdomen and closed the opening before he was born.
Theo is now five months old and developing normally.
The operation is part of the world’s first clinical trial to repair complex gastroschisis before birth. Theo became only the third baby globally
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