Surgeon and Foetus Meet

'Holding Hands'

This must be one of the most remarkable photographs ever taken. The tiny hand of a foetus reaches out from a mother's womb to clasp a surgeon's finger. The unborn child who is 21 weeks old has spina bifida, which left part of his spinal cord exposed after the backbone failed to develop. It is at an age when it could still be legally aborted, but instead it was about to undergo a spine operation designed to save it from serious brain damage.

The surgery was carried out entirely through the tiny slit visible in the wall of the womb and the `patient' is believed to be the youngest to undergo it because his mother chose not to have the foetus aborted. Her decision led to an astonishing test not just of medical technology, but of faith.

The operation was designed to close the gap in his spine and protect the cord, the body's motorway for nerve signals to the brain. So,on an unborn patient no bigger than a guinea-pig, the operation was performed without removing the foetus from the womb.

The surgery was carried out entirely through the tiny slit visible in the wall of the womb and the `patient' is believed to be the youngest to undergo it. The instruments had to be specially designed to work in miniature. The sutures used to close the incisions were less than the thickness of a human hair.

Julie, a 27-year-old nurse, had suffered two miscarriages before she became pregnant with the child they intended to call Samuel Alexander if it was a boy. But at 14 weeks, she started to suffer cramp. An ultrasound scan was carried out to show the shape of the developing foetus and its position in the womb. When the picture emerged, it was the moment that every parent-to-be dreads. Their unborn son's brain was mis-shapen and his spinal cord was sticking out from a deformed backbone. He had spina bifida.

At that stage of the pregnancy abortion is routinely offered in their home town of Georgia in the US, but for Julie and Alex Armas, who are deeply religious, it was not an option. Instead they turned to the internet for help. Julie's mother found a website giving details of pioneering surgery being carried out by a team at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Although the results have not yet been endorsed in medical journals, they looked encouraging and their doctor put them in touch with Dr. Joseph Bruner (it is his finger in the photograph).

So, one morning in October 1999, Dr Bruner was heard saying, 'Shh!'' he said, 'You'll wake the baby!' And the successful operation had begun.

Picture and story provided by the Irish Independent Online.