In 2016, at the Texas Children Fetal Centre, a baby was removed from its mother’s womb, operated on, and then successfully put back in the womb by Nigerian doctors Oluyinka Olutoye and Dr. Darrell Cass, who practiced in the US.
The cause of the surgery is a tumor that was discovered to be developing in a newborn when it was still in its mother’s womb at only a few weeks of conception.
The baby’s mother, Margaret Boemer, learned that her 16-week-old child had a disorder known as sacrococcygeal teratoma, which meant that a tumor was developing in the child’s coccyx (close to her spine).
If the tumor wasn’t removed before the baby was born, she might not survive. This is due to the tumor, which drew blood from the developing baby, seeking to expand at the same time the fetus was.
The hospital director Dr. Darrell Cass and doctor Oluyinka Olutoye made the decision to attempt the unusual surgery in an effort to save the baby’s life.
Even though they only spent 20 minutes operating on the fetus, the procedure might have taken up to 5 hours because they had to be cautious around the mother whose uterus they opened and worked on.
After the procedure, the baby grew inside the mother’s womb normally and was delivered through C-section on June 6. Lynlee Hope, the child dubbed the “baby born twice,” is still doing well today.
About Dr. Olutoye
Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye was born in Lagos, Nigeria. He had his secondary school education at Kings College Lagos.
Dr. Christian Bernard, who carried out the first heart transplant (human-human) had an impact on Dr. Olutoye’s decision to undergo surgery.
Dr. Olutoye studied embryology at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife. He then proceeded to the Medical College of Virginia to begin his residency program. He completed his Ph.D. at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he conducted research on the healing of neonatal wounds.
The surgeon is married to Prof. Toyin Olutoye, a Pediatrics-Anesthesiology in Houston Texas.
Also worthy of note is that Dr. Olutoye’s wife was part of the team involved in Lynlee Hope’s surgery.
