William Kelly, 28, appeared in court in New Hampshire on charges of killing a pregnant woman and her unborn child, marking the first time the state has charged someone with murder in the death of a fetus. The woman, Christine Falzone, was about 35 to 37 weeks pregnant at the time of her death in December. Kelly was indicted on two counts of second-degree murder and is being held without bail. This case is the first of its kind in the state, following a 2017 law defining a fetus at 20 weeks and beyond as a person for criminal prosecution of murder.
Doctors from Boston Children's Hospital and the Brigham and Women's Hospital collaborated on a trial to treat vein of Galen malformation (VOGM) for a fetus, which included performing brain surgery while the fetus was still in the womb. The baby was born in March and did not require any further treatment. VOGM is a rare blood vessel abnormality inside the brain that can cause heart failure if left untreated. This procedure was the first attempt at the treatment and is being conducted on around 20 babies. There were no negative effects on the baby's brain.
Doctors have performed a first-of-its-kind brain surgery on a fetus in the womb to repair a malformed blood vessel in the baby's brain. The procedure was conducted as part of an ongoing clinical trial aimed at finding a new way to treat vein of Galen malformation (VOGM), a rare abnormality that affects the blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood from the heart to the brain. The new approach uses an in utero surgery designed to reduce the aggressive blood flow through the VOGM. The trial will include an estimated 20 babies, in total, and the recently treated baby, Denver Coleman, was the first to undergo the procedure.
Surgeons from Boston Children's Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital have successfully repaired a major malformation in the brain of a fetus using a surgical technique called embolization to treat a rare prenatal condition called vein of Galen malformation. The condition places significant stress on the cardiovascular system, which can lead to heart failure, hypertension in the arteries in the lungs and heart, and significant brain damage that results in neurological and cognitive impairment. The success of the procedure offers new hope for treating the condition before the risk of complications escalates, and the team is undertaking a clinical trial to gauge the possibility of treating the condition prior to birth.
Doctors from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Boston Children's Hospital have performed a groundbreaking surgery on a 34-week-old fetus, fixing a blood vessel abnormality in the brain that is often fatal. The procedure, which used a needle similar to those used for an amniocentesis, was part of an FDA-approved clinical trial. The baby and mother are both doing well.
Doctors have performed a successful in utero surgery to repair a rare and potentially deadly prenatal condition in a fetus. In a two-hour procedure, doctors used ultrasound imaging to guide a needle through the uterus of the mother and into a vein in the back of the fetus’s head. The tiny patient was the first in a clinical trial currently underway at Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, performed with oversight from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and was delivered by induced vaginal birth two days after the procedure.
