From the first days of her life, 5-month-old Vika from Ternopil did not breathe and could not eat on her own. The team of the surgical center of St. Nicholas Hospital in Lviv saved a girl with a dangerous birth defect.
The child was transported to Lviv the day after birth. The girl was born prematurely in January. The baby began to turn blue: the examination revealed esophageal atresia. This is a congenital malformation, during which this organ in an infant seems to be divided into several segments that are not connected to each other. In the girl, the upper end of the esophagus ended blindly, and the lower end grew into the trachea. The food could not pass through the esophagus and entered the child’s lungs: this is how life-threatening pneumonia began to develop.
The operation had to be performed immediately, because without surgical intervention, the child could die with such defects. However, due to worsening coagulation parameters, the girl spent two more days in the intensive care unit under ventilator and with constant blood transfusions.
On the third day of life, Victoria was operated on. Specialists performed a thoracoscopic intervention. Only through three small holes with a diameter of 3 and 5 mm. First, doctors eliminated the connection between the trachea and the lower segment of the esophagus, and then stitched its disconnected parts.
Almost immediately after the intervention, the girl began to breathe on her own, and after five days in the intensive care unit, she was already drinking milk. Gradually the weight returned.
In 95-98% of cases with esophageal atresia, babies recover quickly. However, the biggest threat is complications. And these are pneumonia, prematurity, combined malformations, and, especially, too large gaps between the segments of the esophagus. The surgeons of St. Nicholas Hospital are one of the few in Ukraine who perform such interventions for newborns. Doctors emphasize: if a child is diagnosed with esophageal atresia prenatally or at birth, it is very important not to delay, but to immediately seek help from specialists.