Children's Hospital of Philadelphia saves fetus from deadly heart tumor, family returns home to Tennessee
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has successfully performed a historic fetal surgery to remove a heart tumor, saving the life of a baby from Tennessee.
When Brailey Valenzuela was 24 weeks pregnant, an ultrasound showed her baby had a deadly heart tumor.
"A pericardial teratoma is a mass or tumor that develops inside of the sac that surrounds the heart," said Dr. Holly Hedrick from CHOP.
The only hope was surgery on the fetus that CHOP is renowned for doing.
"During the operation, we expose the uterus," Hedrick said. "And then we expose the baby's chest. And we do that by actually leaving most of the baby inside and just the arms come out."
The surgical team then operates on the fetus, carefully removing the tumor from the heart.
Everything is stitched back together and the pregnancy continues. Three months later on Feb. 17, Arley was born via C-section.
"The first moment I saw her, I remember joy, relief," Brailey Valenzuela said.
"It was amazing. It was — it's like the light at the end of the tunnel," Louis Valenzuela said. "We're very thankful that medicine has advanced enough that they can do open heart surgery on a fetus."
After a few weeks recovering at CHOP, Arley and her mom were able to go home.
And as far as her growing and developing, they don't expect there to be any issues. Her heart is functioning normally.
Brailey Valenzuela became the fourth patient at CHOP to successfully undergo this type of fetal heart surgery.
