[Natika] That was just kind of, like ...
Very surreal.
>> Man: Shocking.
>> Natika: Shocking, yeah.
We were in there and they said,
"Well, let's just look at that first."
And then they looked and they said,
"Okay, well the baby has
a diaphragmatic hernia."
Our first son was also sick
with a diaphragmatic hernia,
and we just didn't think
it would happen again.
>> The referral call came,
actually from another physician
here in Baltimore,
and basically just called me and said
there's a left-sided diaphragmatic hernia,
and this patient had a previous child
with a diaphragmatic hernia.
Under those circumstances, you know,
we tried to get her in relatively quickly,
because that's a
complicated issue in itself.
>> Dr. Baschat, obviously his
priority is to try to keep
kids as healthy as they
are when they're born,
so they don't need life-saving measures.
So Dr. Baschat let us know
that they had just started
a trial program to try
to increase the lung size
of kids with CDH before they're born,
by doing a procedure called FETO.
Fetoscopic Tracheal Occlusion
involves looking into
the uterus with a small
camera, called a fetoscope.
Placing a balloon that gets inflated,
to increase and expand
the lung from the inside,
and prove the lung size and overall area.
>> In congenital diaphragmatic hernia,
the abdominal contents end
up in the chest of the fetus,
and that interferes with
normal lung development.
If you block the baby's trachea
before birth with a balloon,
and that's what the fetal procedure is,
you can reverse some of that lung damage,
and they potentially improve
the chances for survival.
>> We decided that we would
rather William have a chance
at an easier road than our first son had,
and we thought if we can do something
that will help minimize that path for him,
then we're gonna try it.
>> The patient has to stay
close to the hospital.
You have to have facilities available
that can accommodate that,
and so the Children's House
is just across the street.
They just walk across and
they're right in the hospital.
It makes fetal therapy
also available for families
that live far away, because
we can set them up there.
Whenever a patient with a
diaphragmatic hernia delivers
on our service, we actually
inform all the care specialties
that may be involved with the
care of the baby afterwards.
And because we discuss all
these patients beforehand,
they're familiar with who
that patient actually is.
The prenatal, the fetal therapy program,
actually feeds into a
post-natal CDH program,
so all babies with diaphragmatic hernia
have a specialized follow-up,
because they may have
multiple care needs.
>> I've had four pregnancies,
and I've never had a team
as involved as I did
with the team at Hopkins.
From the moment we found out,
through his stay in the PICU,
they would come by everyday
at first, every week,
just to check on him
and see how I was doing.
Even after William was born,
they continued to advocate for him.
It must be really rewarding
for them to see, kind of,
the end product of all of their work.
Because they do so much
before the baby is born,
they're not always, you know,
they don't probably get to
see the long-term follow-up,
but you know, I think
they were really pleased
with how he was doing.
And so are we!
(soft music)
