UCLA team performs emergency surgery to save mom and newborn baby

UCLA Health When mom-to-be Malisa was just a few weeks away from delivering her first child, she felt a sudden pain in her chest while at the movies with a friend.Her doctors ruled out any problems with the pregnancy but did learn she had a rare, life-threatening heart condition called an aortic dissection, a tear in the aorta located just above the aortic valve involving the arteries that take blood to the heart and brain. The condition often leads to sudden death, but with unusual luck she was able to survive.Once diagnosed, Malisa, who lives about 80 miles from Los Angeles, was airlifted to  Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Tuesday, June 13. Her husband Josh, a master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, was on assignment in South Korea and quickly made arrangements for the 10-hour flight back to California. (The couple asked that their last names not be included.)“The doctors explained that they were going to perform the cesarean to save the baby, and while I was still under they would immediately start on the heart surgery,” Malisa recalled. “My first question was, ‘How long can we wait until my husband gets here?’”But because of the seriousness of her condition, the doctors did not want to delay treatment and she was in the operating room by 9:45 that evening. A team of 23 specialists assembled, including heart surgeons, obstetricians, anesthesiologists, neonatologists, nurses, a perfusionist, plus experts from respiratory therapy and neurophysiology.“We...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news