Baby Surgeons: Delivering Miracles

As the backdrop for the BAFTA winning series 24 Hours in A&E, St Georges is now opening their doors to the Fetal Medicine Unit in Channel 4’s new series ‘Baby Surgeons: Delivering Miracles’. 

The documentary follows obstetrician Professor Basky Thilaganathan and his team as they work to save the lives of unborn babies with complex medical conditions. 

In one moving episode, Professor Thilaganathan was seen helping parents Becky and Richard, who were told that their baby had no chance of surviving.  At Becky’s nineteen week scan, baby Annie was showing signs of congenital heart failure due to pressures from a congenital cystic adenomatoid malformation of the lung. In simpler terms, this meant that Annie had a tumour on her lung the size of a malteaser. 

Owing to developments in medicine, Professor Thilaganathan was able to complete a non-invasive operation immediately on Becky and Annie by placing a tube near the mass, and feeding a laser through it, to zap and kill a rogue blood vessel.

Remarkably, despite the parents being told that Annie’s heart could stop at any time, the procedure was successful and Becky gave birth to Annie several months later, with no signs of the surgery she had undergone before she was born.

This is, yet again, proof of what amazing talent and humanity we have here in Tooting.

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