Wellness [ THE BEST START ]

Surgery before birth helps baby boy breathe free

Caleb Derby is a pretty typical little boy. At almost a year old, Caleb is getting the hang of rolling over and it won’t be too long before the 10-month-old starts crawling all over his house. And while Caleb is a healthy, happy kid, he didn’t have such a normal start.

“It was when we went in to get the ultrasound to find out the gender,” remembered Caleb’s mom Veronica Derby. “We went into the doctor’s office and he said I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that it’s a boy, but he has fluid building up around his lungs.”

Caleb had what’s known as a pleural effusion. Fluid was entering his chest cavity and wasn’t able to drain. The fluid was pushing up against his lung. If left untreated, the lung would not develop properly and would not be able to function normally once Caleb was born.

“I was just heartbroken,” said Derby. “You think everything is fine and then this happens. We were just really scared.”

Derby’s doctor referred her to the only maternal fetal medicine physician in North Dakota.

“This is a fairly rare condition,” said Peter VanEerden, MD, and maternal fetal medicine physician at Sanford Fargo Medical Center. “About one in 15,000 babies will have it.”

“The OBs do such a great job here in Fargo,” said Dr. VanEerden. “But in certain situations, a referral is required. And it is so much nicer for patients to be able to come here for care and treatment then having to go to Minneapolis or Sioux Falls.”

Dr. VanEerden made a plan with Derby to monitor the fluid level around the baby’s lung. Derby would make several trips to the doctor each week to make sure the baby was still doing okay. Then after about a month of monitoring, Dr. VanEerden noticed that the baby’s condition was getting worse. He decided it was time to drain as much of the fluid out as possible.

“It was a pretty easy procedure,” recounted Derby. “I just sort of felt a tight, pinching feeling as they inserted the needle into my stomach so they could extract the fluid around his lungs.”

In most instances, this simple procedure would have solved the problem, but unfortunately for Derby that wasn’t the case for her and Caleb.

“It was really just a roller coaster ride,” said Derby. “We went in for a check-up and there wasn’t any fluid, but a week later there was. The back and forth was just devastating.”

With the fluid still present around the baby’s lungs, Dr. VanEerden decided that a shunt should be placed in the baby to allow the fluid to drain.

“We didn’t actually have the tools needed to perform the procedure,” remembered Dr. VanEerden. “But we decided that it was important to be able to offer this procedure permanently in Fargo, so we ordered the reusable tools knowing that this sort of situation would probably come up again.”

Derby was admitted to the hospital, where she waited for the procedure that would help ensure her baby would have the best start in life.

“My whole family was there,” said Derby. “My mom asked me if this was the right thing to do and if I should get a second opinion. And I just said that I trusted my doctor completely. I trust that he’ll do a good job.”

The procedure went off without a hitch. Caleb’s chest cavity was now free of fluid, allowing his lung to expand and strengthen. He was born just a few weeks later due to complications not related to the procedure. At nine weeks early, Caleb had to spend several weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but he is now doing great with a pair of healthy lungs.

“I cannot say enough good things about Dr. VanEerden and the staff at Sanford,” said Derby. “The overwhelming amount of support and care we received was just amazing. They saved my son’s life. I can’t thank them enough.” [AWM]

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