New Orleans hospital celebrates successful in-utero surgery

The Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans is celebrating a successful surgery on Colby Boudreaux, a newborn baby who had a hole in his back repaired while he was in the womb.  At 23 weeks gestation, a team of doctors performed surgery on Colby before he was born to correct this problem. 

Kaci Thibodaux holding her son Colby via Ochsner Health System

Colby Boudreaux is moving his legs and feet. While this is something most parents take for granted, for the Thibodaux infant, it's remarkable.

Colby underwent a life-changing surgery at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans to correct a myelomeningocele birth defect, the most serious form of spina bifida, 12 weeks before he was born.......

During the delicate two-hour operation, Ochsner's fetal surgery team worked together to repair the hole in Colby's back. Kaci's uterus was opened by the maternal fetal medicine physicians. The fetus was lifted and held just slightly out of his mother's womb, where the MMC defect in his spine was closed by the pediatric neurosurgeon.

After a plastic surgeon closed his skin incision, he was placed back into the uterus. During the procedure, two pediatric cardiologists and two obstetric anesthesiologists monitored Colby and his mother to make sure they remained stable. At the time of surgery, Colby weighed just over a pound.

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