A 20-day-old baby born with a deadly aneurysm has been saved with the help of superglue.
It all started when Ashlyn Julian, born May 16, went from quiet all the time to screaming and throwing up.
‘At that point,’ says mom Gina Julian, ‘you know something’s not right.
Fearing the worst, Ashlyn’s parents rushed the tiny girl to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas. That’s where an ultra-sound uncovered something lurking inside her brain.
‘[That’s] as far as we made it because they saw something in her head at that point in time, so they decided to transfer her to a hospital that was better equipped for what was going on,’ Julian told CNN.
The decision turned out to be a smart one, but no one could have known that the moment doctors at the second hospital diagnosed Ashlyn with an almond-sized aneurysm in her brain.
The condition, very rarely seen in infants, is far more common in adults, leaving doctors in uncharted waters.
‘We did not know what the right answer was. This was not a textbook case,’ said Dr. Koji Ebersole, an endovascular neurosurgeon.
Dr. Ebersole said the aneurysm was unlikely to close on its own and that most babies wouldn’t survive an aneurysm left untreated.
‘So we had a strong reason to develop a plan to close the aneurysm,’ he said.
Unfortunately, because the condition is so rare in infants, there were no designated tools for the job.
After imaging the aneurysm using an angiogram, which allows doctors to view the body’s blood vessels, Dr. Ebersole decided on his course of action: he would close the aneurysm using surgical superglue.
Ashlyn’s prognosis was impossible to determine. No one had ever used superglue on a baby in that way before. There wasn’t even a designated tool for the job.
Dr. Ebersole decided to use a tiny, hair thin micro-catheter to administer the daring treatment. Going in through the baby’s neck, the doctors accessed the aneurysm and deposited the glue.
And then they waited.
But they didn’t have to wait long. Doctors were able to remove Ashlyn’s breathing tube the very next day.
‘I did not know that she'd be ready that fast,’ said the thrilled doctor.
Ashlyn’s relieved parents will likely be able to take their little girl, who doctors say will be just fine, home in a week or so.
VIDEO
http://www.dailymail.co.uk