The doctor saved a baby with fatal anemia in the 20th week of pregnancy.
This baby had no chance of being born alive. Edward Banham, or simply Teddy, developed severe anemia in utero after his blood cells were attacked by his mother’s immune system.
As it turned out, the mother and the unborn child have different Rh factors. Mrs.Bunham has negative and Teddy has positive. As a result, the mother’s body rejects the foreign body: antibodies are formed in the blood of the pregnant woman, which destroy the red blood cells (blood cells) of her child.
This was Mrs. Banham’s second pregnancy. As a rule, during the first pregnancy, Rh-conflict is a rare occurrence. The woman’s body does not yet have antibodies to foreign erythrocytes. However, in subsequent pregnancies, different Rh factors are very dangerous for the fetus. And so it happened with Teddy.
Due to anemia, in the 20th week, the child developed edema (dropsy of the fetus), in which the heart weakens, and a large amount of fluid accumulates in the organs, squeezing them. About half of children with dropsy do not survive.
Baby Teddy was desperate for blood. To survive in a “hostile environment,” he needed Rh-negative blood, like his mother. And then the doctor dared to transfuse blood through the umbilical cord.
Blood transfusion to the fetus in the 20th week of pregnancy is considered very rare and difficult, because the baby’s umbilical cord at this time is very small, which increases the risk of complications. The doctor used a 15 cm needle for the transfusion.
Little Teddy with his little sister
“You had to lie as still as possible,” Mrs. Banham recalls. – If you breathe normally, taking deep breaths, the doctor could miss. The last time I almost fainted “
In total, between weeks 20 and 32, Teddy received five transfusions in the womb. Most babies usually require two transfusions at most, starting at 28-29 weeks. However, if the tests show a large amount of bilirubin (one of the main components of bile, which is formed when erythrocytes are destroyed), the transfusion must be repeated.
Fortunately, baby Teddy survived all five procedures. He was born at 35 weeks by cesarean section. Born with a collapsed lung (a pathological condition in which air enters the pleural cavity between the lung and the sternum), but quickly recovered.