Baby only 10th to have in utero procedure

Early during pregnancy with their second child, Suzanne and Robert Francis faced the decision of their lives: whether to allow doctors to treat their son while still in the womb.

Worldwide, the delicate heart procedure had been done only nine times.

The Huntington couple Thursday was more than happy the procedure was performed. Dante, now 10 months old, is active and happy -- his heart in perfect health.

"This was the hardest decision ever," Suzanne Francis said during a news conference at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, where she and her family reunited with their doctors.

"I did pray," Francis, 46, said, recalling a tense five weeks between the diagnosis and operation. "I really had to trust and know that this was going to be OK."

While in the womb Dante developed a life-threatening accumulation of fluid that filled his pericardium -- the protective sac around the heart. The condition was diagnosed during the 13th week of gestation during a routine examination.

Dr. Angela Romano, Dante's pediatric cardiologist, said the pericardium is supposed to fit tightly on the heart, not fill like a water balloon around it.

When fluid increases, Romano said, it decreases the amount of blood the organ pumps. The condition can lead to lung compression, heart failure and, if untreated, death in the womb.

Dante underwent the procedure in June 2010. At the time, he was barely 7 inches long and his heart was about the size of a quarter.

A team of maternal/fetal experts headed by Dr. Nidhi Vohra was assembled to perform the procedure known as in utero pericardiocentesis.

Guided by ultrasound technology, Vohra inserted a long needle through the mother's abdomen and into Dante's pericardial sac. She withdrew a half teaspoon of fluid, an amount she called astonishing given the size of the heart.

The procedure lasted about a minute.

"It was a miracle what they were able to do," Robert Francis, 50, said Thursday.

Dante's operation became the 10th of its kind to be documented globally, said Vohra, who searched Pub Med, a vast database of medical literature to find others. She said it's virtually impossible to know whether other doctors in New York have performed it because physicians don't always publish their work on fetal procedures.

Suzanne Francis said the reunion with her doctors helped recall numerous struggles associated with Dante's development and birth. The baby was conceived through assisted reproductive technology.

"I had only a 2 percent chance of conceiving because of my age," said Francis, whose daughter, Madeline, was born four years ago. "There aren't enough words to describe how much I love him. I love both my children so much."