A surgery performed while she was in her mother’s womb saved three-month-old Eiko Son from a lifetime of impairments from spina bifida.

The team of fetal specialists, neurosurgeons, cardiologists at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto performed a two and a half hour operation to close the opening in Eiko’s spinal column that would have left her with life long motor and nervous system impairments.

Eiko’s mother, Romeila, was 26 weeks pregnant when doctors cut into her womb to repair her unborn baby. She carried to term and gave birth to her healthy daughter on August 19.

The innovative in utero spina bifida surgery was done by the first time in 1997 at Vanderbilit, and is still only performed at a few top hospitals in the world. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5089687/Surgeons-fixed-baby-s-spina-bifida-mother-s-womb.html#ixzz4ynXxRXjr