Emily Ellis flicks through photos of her four-day-old baby, Austin, on her phone. “He is perfect,” she says with the certainty of any new parent. But the journey to his arrival has been more complicated than most. Austin has spina bifida and is one of a growing number of babies in the UK to have undergone a pioneering foetal surgery that is transforming outcomes for infants with the condition.
Before his birth, surgeons at King’s College hospital operated on Austin’s spinal defect while he was still inside the womb and the Guardian was given unique access to observe the same procedure on another mother and baby from inside the operating theatre. The procedure is not a cure, but could be the difference between Austin walking or not.
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