24 Wochen Page #5

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I think it's this way.

- Maybe it's here.

Okay, so...

Yes, that's his head on the left.

Normal amniotic fluid levels.

The placenta

is attached to the back wall.

His bottom is down here

and his thigh is there.

Ah, here you can already see

the male genitals lighting up.

The thigh...

- "Lighting up"?

Exactly. That's what I said.

- A beacon!

You...

- Pretty big, huh?

But you shouldn't get your hopes up.

Then here we have his little head.

The kidneys.

The bladder is full.

Mine too.

- And...

I can't really see his little heart yet.

His back is...

- He's moving too much.

Yes, and he has his back to us.

Could you turn over?

Okay.

- To the left a bit.

Like that.

- That's great. Stay in that position.

Okay...

It's very fast, isn't it?

I'll take a closer look.

Is it too fast or too slow?

Just give me a moment

and then I'll explain.

If you could just keep still,

that'd be great.

Oh, sorry.

...pumps blood to the lungs.

And on the left is the left atrium,

the atrium mitral valve,

and then the left ventricle,

which pumps blood into the artery.

And this here confirms the diagnosis:

There is a hole

in the interatrial septum.

Here.

This area here

is sharing a heart valve.

And there's a big hole in the ventricular

septum and the interatrial septum.

In the lower area,

we'd take Gore-Tex fabric

and we'd use a Gore-Tex patch

to construct a new ventricular septum.

And up here,

we'd use our own pericardium,

treated with glutaraldehyde.

And then we'd be able to seal this hole.

Not right away.

Not with newborn babies.

We wait until the baby is four months old

and weighs between 9-11 pounds.

So, I'll put it in my own words:

there are two holes,

which can be repaired.

Exactly.

If both ventricles are large enough.

That's the requirement.

- If both what?

Both ventricles, both chambers.

Are big enough.

Then we can repair the heart.

The operation is a complicated procedure.

When the baby's...

- Are they large enough?

Not yet,

but we can't say for sure right now.

We think the left chamber is smaller.

- Will that make the operation harder?

More complicated?

- Of course.

We would have to operate

when the child's one week old...

One week old?

- One week old.

What would the operation involve?

It would be major, open-heart surgery

and we'd stop the heart.

First, we'd have to

open up the chest wall.

We'd cool the heart.

Then we'd stop the heart.

And then...

- "Open up"? What do you mean?

We'd have to saw it open, open it up...

Saw it open? But it's tiny.

- Saw it open.

We have to, unfortunately. It's bone.

And you have to saw through bone...

We don't need all the details.

It's an operation you do regularly...

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