Surgeons saved an unborn baby’s leg

Australian surgeons saved the leg of an unborn baby by operating when her mother was just 22 weeks pregnant, in what may be the earliest in utero surgery of its type , the hospital said on Monday.

Baby girl Leah had a rare condition in which stray bands of tissue wrap themselves around the developing foetus’ limbs or digits, in this case both her legs and cut off blood flow.

A spokeswoman of Melbourne’s Monash Medical Centre said the surgery was believed to be a world first because doctors usually hold back on operating until the mother is 28 weeks pregnant to better the baby’s chances of survival.

Doctors pierced the mother’s abdomen with a 2 mm thick telescopic needle to allow them to apply laser and electric current to cut the band above the baby’s left foot.But the right leg was so badly affected with the band having cut through to the bone , that surgeon Chris Kimber decided to leave the already swollen and infected foot alone.

After the birth in January, doctors operated to save the gangraneous right leg and are now confident that Leah will be able to walk.