Dr. Joseph Bruner at Vanderbilt is known for his work in fetal surgery, especially on babies with spina bifida, a condition in which the spine does not close properly during development.
Vanderbilt confirms that little Samuel Armus was 21 weeks old in the womb when Dr. Bruner conducted the surgery on him, which makes the surgery very risky because if anything goes wrong, the baby is not likely to survive on its own. Dr. Bruner and his colleagues, however, have done numerous successful spina bifida surgeries on fetuses that are not yet viable.
In this particular surgery, the baby's hand poked out of the incision in its mother's womb and Dr. Bruner says he instinctively offered his finger for the baby to hold.
Michael Clancy, the photographer who took this picture and who owns the copyright to it, tells the story that out of the corner of his eye he saw the uterus shake and the baby's hand pop out of the surgical opening. Clancy says that when the doctor put his finger into the baby's hand, the baby squeezed the finger and held on... almost as if to thank him for his work.
Pretty amazing, huh? I thought so... and I posted this in celebration of Baby Gray reaching the 21-week mark this week! :)
1 comment:
THat is very amazing. What a special time, I will never understand people that don't the baby is a baby until it is born. What a miracle.
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