Fetal Surgery Saved Baby Elisabeth’s Life in the Womb

Baby Elisabeth’s care journey at Connecticut Children’s began, incredibly enough, before she was even born. At just 23 weeks’ gestation, her parents, Anna and Jared, learned that their baby had a cyst growing on her lung that was putting pressure on her tiny, still developing heart. She was beginning to show signs of heart failure in the womb. Fortunately, Connecticut Children’s Fetal Care Center is led by one of the world’s most experienced fetal surgeons, Timothy Crombleholme, MD. He knew what needed to be done to save Elisabeth’s life.

A procedure once beyond imagination

To relieve the pressure on Baby Elisabeth’s heart, Dr. Crombleholme’s team planned to place a tiny shunt to drain fluid from the cyst into the amniotic fluid outside her chest. Using a fiber-optic instrument called a fetoscope—a tube just three millimeters wide—Dr. Crombleholme carefully navigated through Anna’s abdominal wall and uterus and into the baby’s chest and the cyst. This procedure, known as a fetal thoracoscopy, allowed him to see inside the cyst and ensure that, once the shunt was in place, it would fully decompress.

And that’s exactly what happened. As soon as the shunt was in, the cyst shrank by 70% and Elisabeth’s heart moved back to its normal position. When she was born seven weeks later, weighing just over three pounds, the neonatal care team was ready. They intubated Elisabeth to help her breathe, and inserted a tube into her chest to replace the shunt, preventing the deflated cyst from filling with air. To survive on her own, Elisabeth needed to have the cyst removed entirely, along with the part of the lung it was attached to. 

First, she needed to grow   

Before surgery to remove the cyst could be performed, Elisabeth needed to get bigger and stronger. After six weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), she was finally ready for the second surgery. Over several hours, Dr. Crombleholme’s team successfully removed the portion of her lung containing the cyst. She was now able to breathe on her own. After 77 days in the NICU, Jared and Anna finally could take her home.

A lifeline for families

Parents who need cutting-edge fetal medicine to save their baby’s life don’t have many options. Connecticut Children’s is one of only nine Fetal Care Centers across the country able to offer the fullest range of fetal interventions. Our patient volumes since the Fetal Care Center opened in May 2023 have only further confirmed the need for these services in the region. By the end of May 2025, 331 patients from across the country had come to the Fetal Care Center:

• Connecticut: 284 patients
• Massachusetts: 40 patients
• Oregon: 1 patient
• Oklahoma: 1 patient
• New York: 2 patients
• New Jersey: 1 patient
• Vermont: 1 patient

There have been 32 surgical procedures, 220 deliveries, and 2,035 patient visits.  

Pioneering fetal care for moms and babies

Connecticut Children’s Fetal Care Center is also the only Fetal Care Center in New England with a dedicated delivery unit—and we recently achieved a groundbreaking milestone, the first-ever planned, C-section delivery of a baby at our health system. It required an extraordinary display of teamwork, expertise, and resilience, and is a testament to our unwavering dedication to providing lifesaving care for both mothers and babies. 

The baby was at significant risk of requiring open-heart surgery within minutes of delivery, necessitating a multi-disciplinary team, careful coordination with Hartford HealthCare, and the advanced technology in our hybrid operating room and catheterization lab. “The complexity here was the uncertainty of how the baby would respond immediately after birth,” said Dennis Mello, MD, division head, cardiovascular surgery. “We held multiple meetings, conducted walk-throughs, and ensured all teams were ready to pivot in real time. The collaboration and preparation were remarkable.”

After the baby was delivered and given a quick evaluation, Dr. Mello determined that a stent placement in the catheterization lab was the best course of action, rather than open-heart surgery. Within hours of birth, the baby was stabilized, thanks to the seamless coordination between our fetal care and cardiac teams. 

New milestones on the horizon

Pediatric expertise provides better outcomes for kids, and we’re getting ready for another fetal care milestone at Connecticut Children’s. The Fetal Care Center will be moving into the new 8-story clinical tower, where it will occupy an entire floor with the new, state-of-the-art Beit-Paley Fetal Care Operating Room and a private elevator just for fetal care families. None of this would be possible without the generosity of our community. Through Bid for Kids, donors raised $519,741 in 2023 to support the Fetal Care Center.

In 2022, Bid for Kids donors raised $386,360 for the Hybrid Operating Room and, in 2024, an incredible $1,410,900 for the new Advanced Cellular & Gene Therapy Unit. This year’s Bid for Kids will support our tiniest patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).