Team at Medical Center Performs Intense Surgery to Save Baby’s Life

Doctors at a local hospital performed a complicated procedure for the first time and it saved a baby’s life. Amari Walker had a tumor the size of his head growing on his neck while he was still in the womb.  At 37 weeks, his mother, Tyricia, delivered by cesarean section.  A team of doctors at the Medical Center of Central Georgia had to act fast to perform a risky surgery to remove the tumor while the baby was still attached to the umbilical cord.

“It was almost as large as the baby’s head which compressed the trachea which is the tube that goes from your lungs into your mouth,” explained Chris Hendry, Chief of OBGYN Dept.

“It involves delivering the baby but leaving them on the heart-lung bypass of the placenta and providing the mother with very deep sedation so the uterus doesn’t do what it tries to do which is get the baby out,” said Josh Glenn, Pediatric Surgeon.

Within two days, surgeons removed the 13-ounce tumor. The ex utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) procedure was the first of it’s kind to be performed at the Medical Center.  Subsequent surgeries were done following the initial procedure.