28-year-old Maria Dennison was pregnant when she found out that there was something wrong with her unborn daughter.
The doctors found out that the baby had a condition called gastroschisis, a birth defect of the abdominal wall where the intestines develop outside the body. It was a life-threatening condition.
Organs outside her body
In fact she and her partner Chris Bartlewere offered an abortion but decided against it.
“I was extremely worried throughout the pregnancy. I knew that while she was still inside of me she would be safe, but as soon as I gave birth she would have to be wheeled off for life-saving surgery,” she told The Daily Mail.
Maria delivered Millie via C-section, and immediately the doctors began their corrective surgery to put the newborn’s organs inside her.
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But the baby struggled to contain the organs and her blood pressure plummeted, which then forced the doctors to take the organs back out.
They placed them into a medical sandwich bag which hung above her incubator, and over the course of the following week, the organs were slowly lowered back into her fragile body.
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“When she was born she looked like a perfect newborn baby but she had all of her bowels on the outside, she was then wrapped up in cling film three or four times round.”
A year later, Millie looks just like any other one-year-old; no one would even suspect she was born into the world with her guts hanging out.
What is Gastroschisis?
According to CDC, gastroschisis is a birth defect of the abdominal (belly) wall. The baby’s intestines stick outside of the baby’s body, through a hole beside the belly button.
The hole can be small or large and sometimes other organs, such as the stomach and liver, can also stick outside of the baby’s body.
Soon after the baby is born, surgery will be needed to place the abdominal organs inside the baby’s body and repair the defect.
Photo credit: Caters News Agency
If the gastroschisis defect is small (only some of the intestine is outside of the belly), it is usually treated with surgery soon after birth to put the organs back into the belly and close the opening.
However if it is large (many organs outside of the belly), the repair might done slowly, in stages.
The exposed organs might be covered with a special material and slowly moved back into the belly. After all of the organs have been put back in the belly, the opening is closed.
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