US doctors successfully placed a cardiac device in the heart of a 30-week-old fetus, in the first such life-saving operation, according to the hospital where the in utero surgery took place. The operation took place in November and the baby, named Grace VanDerwerken, went home with her parents and three siblings in Virginia Friday, 17 days after her birth, Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts said in a statement.The procedure was conducted by cardiologists from Children’s Hospital Boston and high-risk obstetrical specialists from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts.The doctors placed a tiny stent in the fetus’ ailing heart.A fine mesh tube, about nine millimeters by 2.5 millimeters, was used to prop open a hole in the atrial septum -- the wall between the heart’s upper chambers -- in a bid to prevent permanent damage to the fetus’ fragile lungs and pulmonary vessels in the final weeks of gestation.The fetus was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) with an intact septum in September, according to Children’s Hospital. HLHS is a congenital heart defect where the heart’s left ventricle, the main pumping chamber, fails to develop.
