Post date: Jun 11, 2013 7:3:49 PM
Doctors at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas use a drop of sterile superglue to save a three-week-old baby suffering from a rare aneurysm.
KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, UNITED STATES (JUNE 7, 2013) (UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HOSPITAL) - When baby Ashlyn Julian suffered a rare infant brain aneurysm that caused her to bleed in two places, doctors at the University of Kansas Hospitalsuccessfully used superglue to stop the bleeding and save her life in an emergency surgery on Wednesday (June 5).
Baby Ashlyn Julian's mother Gina said in a video made by the hospital that she knew something was wrong when her usually quiet child screamed and exhibited limited responsiveness."She has an aneurysm and it's already hemorrhaged, and that's just frightening," Gina recalled.
Ashlyn had suffered from a stroke and bled from two places after having an aneurysm in the brain, a rare condition for babies under 28 days with only 17 reported cases since 1949, according to the hospital.
According to a hospital video, Endovascular Neurosurgeon Dr. Koji Ebersole did not want to cut into Ashlyn's brain, as every drop of blood is crucial in infants. Also, the condition in babies this age is so rare that tiny tools do not exist to perform the surgery.
The decision was made to use a sterile drop of superglue to fix the aneurysm.
Dr. Alan Reeves, an interventional neuroradiologist, placed a catheter in the baby's body, entering at the hip, and then Ebersole was able to drop in the superglue.
Two days later, Ashlyn's parents spoke of their relief.
"It was like a huge weight, a huge weight lifted," the baby's father Jared said.
"Absolutely, it's like you can actually breathe finally for the first time in a week," her mom added.
As Ashlyn's brain was not fully developed, Ebersole expects the baby to make a full recovery, according to a press release from the hospital.