Carnival Atmosphere Outside CHOP For Fetal Surgery Family Reunion
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Children's Hospital of Philadelphia held its 20th annual reunion for the families of children who had life-changing, and in many cases, life-saving surgeries, while most of them were still in the womb.
The atmosphere outside CHOP was carnival meets family reunion, the guests of honor wearing yellow t-shirts with a check mark next to the year they were born.
All were patients at CHOP's Center for Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment, founded 20 years ago by Dr. Scott Adzick.
"Since that time, it's amazing, we've had 18,000 referrals of pregnant mothers carrying babies with birth defects," he says.
Like Kelly Seabold from Cleveland, Ohio, whose fetus had a horrific tumor at the base of her spine, bigger than she was, robbing her of blood.
"During the operation, the baby's heart stopped, two or three times," she tells KYW Newsradio. "I was doing compressions of the heart under echocardiographic guidance."
She made it. Now eleven months old, Maeve Seabold is an inquisitive, rosy-cheeked, blonde, hitting all her milestones.
"That kid is a flat-out miracle," Kelly says.