“It has been a long road but we are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!”
Miracles do exist — and this Texas family is living proof.
Kristen Woody, a resident of Pflugerville, was pregnant when she learned that her baby “had a large growth in his lung that was pressing on the heart,” according to KVUE.
The baby was later diagnosed with a potentially fatal lung condition that required fetal surgery.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, fetal surgery — also known as prenatal surgery or in-utero surgery — “is a procedure on a fetus while it’s still developing in your uterus.”
The primary goal of fetal surgery is to “save the fetus or improve long-term outcomes after birth,” per the Clinic.
In an effort to save her baby, Woody was referred to the Texas Children’s Hospital in Austin — where she was forced to trust a group of surgeons with her baby’s life less than one month before his birth.
Not only did the surgery go as planned, but that baby was born “several weeks” following the surgery, per KVUE.
The surgical team used a needle to penetrate Woody’s skin and uterus through the amniotic sac and into the baby’s chest, where the large growth was located.
They then stuck an open-ended catheter through the needle and into the baby’s chest.
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“One end is in the big balloon inside the baby’s chest; the other end is in the amniotic fluid, which is a big cavity with lower pressure,” pediatric surgeon Dr. Matias Bruzoni told KVUE in a clip shared on YouTube.
“So, [that's] how we were able to decompress the lung, and the heart gets back to the middle where it’s supposed to live, and the pregnancy continues,” he added.
Once the baby was born via a C-section, he underwent a second surgery to remove the catheter and a small part of his lung.
Not only did the baby survive the pregnancy, but he was sent home with his parents after spending several weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Woody, who named her baby boy Knox, describes him as a “very sweet” baby.
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“Knox smiles a lot when you make faces at him,” Woody told KVUE. “Healthwise, he is doing fantastic. I know I’m biased, but he’s the most beautiful baby I’ve ever seen.”
