{"id":216734,"date":"2020-01-12T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T15:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=216734"},"modified":"2020-01-13T17:39:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-13T23:39:10","slug":"spina-bifida-surgery-womb-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/spina-bifida-surgery-womb-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"After spina bifida surgery in the womb, baby Kaelyn is expected to walk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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At 20 weeks into pregnancy with their third child, Irish parents Eoin and Amanda Murphy learned<\/a> that their daughter, Kaelyn, had spina bifida. Spina bifida, which can cause significant physical disabilities, can now be treated with remarkable success with surgery before birth.<\/p>\n

Kaelyn\u2019s father recently appeared on the radio in his home city of Cork to share the family\u2019s story. He said<\/a>, “We were told we might be eligible for a new treatment that is available at the moment. Within a week we were in London speaking to a consultant from Belgium who is one of the world’s leader at this new procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prenatal surgery, which is not suitable for all cases but has led to miraculous results for many babies<\/a>, is performed while the baby is still in the womb. Murphy explained<\/a>, \u201cWe found out at 20 weeks and the operation had to be [done] by 26 weeks or it couldn’t be done. So we didn’t have much time to soak it all in. It was a massive shock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy continued, “We were told there was a 90% chance that if we didn’t go ahead with the operation that Kaelyn would never walk. Kaelyn is just the fifth baby from Ireland to have this done.\u201d<\/p>\n