Baby steps a giant miracle
Published: March 16, 2006
EVERY baby’s first steps are a parent’s delight.
But Ella Turner’s tentative toddle three weeks ago made her a medical marvel.
Ella’s left foot was saved when surgeons operated on her in the womb 12 weeks before she was born.
Now 14 months old, the bubbly toddler walks normally and surgeons hope she will climb mountains and water-ski when she grows up.
“To see Ella walking after coming so close to losing her foot is truly heart-warming,” pediatric surgeon Chris Kimber, from Monash Medical Centre, said.
Proud mother Joanna said Ella took off about three weeks ago.
“Now we can’t stop her,” Ms Turner said. “She has exceeded everyone’s expectations, even ours.”
The family sent surgeons a video of Ella walking, running and playing with family and friends in the front yard of their West Launceston home.
Monash surgeons performed the high-risk operation in October 2004 after an ultrasound revealed a band of tissue was strangling her foot and would have caused it to drop off before she was born.
Even after the risky operation surgeons were unsure how successful it had been.
Mr Kimber said apart from residual swelling on the top of Ella’s foot, it was normal.
“There’s no damage to the toes. There is normal nerve supply, normal range of movement and there is some excess skin there we expect her to grow in to,” he said.
It was only the second time the operation had been tried in Australia, and the fifth time in the world.
Mr Kimber said the outcome of Ella’s operation was the best of any surgery of its kind in the world.
“This is an example where a unique procedure has dramatically altered someone’s life,” he said.
Fetal intervention specialist Andrew Edwards said without the operation the foot would have almost certainly have amputated itself.
“We are very excited to see her walk,” Dr Edwards said.
“We were still concerned when the baby was born about how her development was going to be . . . whether it would be completely normal or what would happen.
“To see her walk roughly on time is fantastic.”
A team of 25 at Monash operated on Ella for 90 minutes when her mother was 27 weeks pregnant.
Ella suffered amniotic band syndrome, a condition when the inner lining of the uterus, known as the amnion, ruptures.
Bands of the amnion can catch around the baby, amputating limbs or causing deformities as they grow in the womb.
In Ella’s case, the band around her left ankle resulted in heavy swelling and decreased blood flow to her foot.
The syndrome occurs once in 12,000-15,000 births.
Ella has had two operations since she was born to close the wound on her ankle.
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