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Baby doing well after lifesaving fetal surgery in Houston
**By PAM EASTON
Associated Press **
As tiny Garrett Jorgensen turns 3 weeks old today only a few bandages will give away his rough entry into the world — an entry that almost didn’t happen.
Just three weeks shy of his due date, a tumor had overtaken two-thirds of Garrett’s small chest cavity, shoving his heart to the opposite side of his chest, cramping his lungs to the point where neither would have been able to expand after birth and causing his belly to fill with fluid as his heart began to fail.
Garrett was dying inside his mother’s womb and if he didn’t perish before birth, he would have moments after, Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye said late Thursday.
Emergency surgery was performed July 29 on the 7-pound fetus while still in his mother’s womb. He was born during the surgery.
Olutoye, a pediatric surgeon known affectionately as “Dr. O” at the Texas Center for Fetal Surgery, said it is the first time fetal surgery has been performed to remove that type of tumor.
Garrett’s mother, Ellen Jorgensen, was sedated and an incision made into her swollen belly. One team of doctors concentrated on her while another on her unborn son.
Doctors partially delivered Garrett’s head and right arm so they could get access to his chest cavity.
“While still attached to the mom, still getting oxygen through the placenta, we were then able to operate on this mass,” Olutoye said.
Doctors pulled the mass outside Garrett’s chest so his lungs would have room to expand. He was then separated from his mother and taken into another room, where the tumor was completely removed and the surgery completed.
“It was a pretty substantial endeavor,” Olutoye said Thursday night at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he visited Garrett. The infant slept peacefully in his mother’s arm and didn’t even wake when Olutoye took his turn holding the newborn.
“This is a very new tumor that we do not understand the biology, so we are going to be following Garrett for a very, very long time to see how that plays out,” the surgeon said. “The intriguing thing about it is, it is a tumor that is still getting a lot of people stumped in terms of what exactly it is.”
Olutoye, however, said Garrett had improved enough to go home with his mom to Round Rock today.
The large mass was discovered in July and Jorgensen’s doctor in Austin referred her to the Houston fetal surgery center, which opened last year. It is similar to others established in San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia.
The Houston center is a collaborative effort by Texas Children’s Hospital, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine — all located within the Texas Medical Center.
“It is just incredible to think doctors can do that,” Ellen Jorgensen said of the surgery which saved her son’s life. “We didn’t do it the easy way the first time, definitely not. But once you have been pregnant all this time — you have done everything that you are supposed to and find out, ‘Oh, well he might not make it,’ — you have got to do what you can.”
The 37-year-old first-time mom is pleased with the outcome and doesn’t like to think about what could have happened.
“It was very emotional, but a true blessing,” she said. “And now he has got all of his tubes out and we get to hold him every day and spoil him rotten and cuddle with him — the whole deal.”
It’s been a gratifying experience for Olutoye as well.
“Garrett is a child that may not have made it to term had we not intervened, and may not have survived without the intervention we did,” the surgeon said. “It is really exciting to see him doing so well.”
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**Jessica Kourkounis / Associated Press **
Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, back, poses for a photograph with patients Garrett Jorgensen, left, and new mother Ellen Jorgensen, right, on Thursday at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Three weeks shy of his due date, a tumor had overtaken two-thirds of Garrett’s small chest cavity. Garrett was dying inside his mother’s womb and if he didn’t perish before birth, he would have moments after, Olutoye said. Emergency surgery was performed July 29 on the 7-pound fetus while still in his mother’s womb. He was born during the surgery.Baby doing well after lifesaving fetal surgery in Houston
**By PAM EASTON
Associated Press **
As tiny Garrett Jorgensen turns 3 weeks old today only a few bandages will give away his rough entry into the world — an entry that almost didn’t happen.
Just three weeks shy of his due date, a tumor had overtaken two-thirds of Garrett’s small chest cavity, shoving his heart to the opposite side of his chest, cramping his lungs to the point where neither would have been able to expand after birth and causing his belly to fill with fluid as his heart began to fail.
Garrett was dying inside his mother’s womb and if he didn’t perish before birth, he would have moments after, Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye said late Thursday.
Emergency surgery was performed July 29 on the 7-pound fetus while still in his mother’s womb. He was born during the surgery.
Olutoye, a pediatric surgeon known affectionately as “Dr. O” at the Texas Center for Fetal Surgery, said it is the first time fetal surgery has been performed to remove that type of tumor.
Garrett’s mother, Ellen Jorgensen, was sedated and an incision made into her swollen belly. One team of doctors concentrated on her while another on her unborn son.
Doctors partially delivered Garrett’s head and right arm so they could get access to his chest cavity.
“While still attached to the mom, still getting oxygen through the placenta, we were then able to operate on this mass,” Olutoye said.
Doctors pulled the mass outside Garrett’s chest so his lungs would have room to expand. He was then separated from his mother and taken into another room, where the tumor was completely removed and the surgery completed.
“It was a pretty substantial endeavor,” Olutoye said Thursday night at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he visited Garrett. The infant slept peacefully in his mother’s arm and didn’t even wake when Olutoye took his turn holding the newborn.
“This is a very new tumor that we do not understand the biology, so we are going to be following Garrett for a very, very long time to see how that plays out,” the surgeon said. “The intriguing thing about it is, it is a tumor that is still getting a lot of people stumped in terms of what exactly it is.”
Olutoye, however, said Garrett had improved enough to go home with his mom to Round Rock today.
The large mass was discovered in July and Jorgensen’s doctor in Austin referred her to the Houston fetal surgery center, which opened last year. It is similar to others established in San Francisco, Boston and Philadelphia.
The Houston center is a collaborative effort by Texas Children’s Hospital, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine — all located within the Texas Medical Center.
“It is just incredible to think doctors can do that,” Ellen Jorgensen said of the surgery which saved her son’s life. “We didn’t do it the easy way the first time, definitely not. But once you have been pregnant all this time — you have done everything that you are supposed to and find out, ‘Oh, well he might not make it,’ — you have got to do what you can.”
The 37-year-old first-time mom is pleased with the outcome and doesn’t like to think about what could have happened.
“It was very emotional, but a true blessing,” she said. “And now he has got all of his tubes out and we get to hold him every day and spoil him rotten and cuddle with him — the whole deal.”
It’s been a gratifying experience for Olutoye as well.
“Garrett is a child that may not have made it to term had we not intervened, and may not have survived without the intervention we did,” the surgeon said. “It is really exciting to see him doing so well.”
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