Fetal surgery removes baby's tumor
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Cami Santee, with her mother, Tami Dobrinski, had surgery to remove the external part of a tumor while part of her body was still in the womb. -
Infant Cami Santee had surgery at the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati to remove the external part of tumor while still in the womb.
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Chad Santee and his miniature schnauzer buddy Duncan cheerily welcomed two visitors into the dark green mobile home that sits under a copse of bare trees in Bentleyville, a borough about 40 miles south of Pittsburgh.
But Mr. Santee, a 5-foot-11, burly man of 31, realized that it was neither he nor his longtime companion Tami Dobrinski, 33, whom the reporter and photographer/videographer had come to see. To talk with, yes, but to look at, no.
That honor belonged to the long-limbed, 9-month-old girl stretched across her blond mother's lap drinking from a baby bottle.
Her delicate beauty, crowned with wispy, reddish-blond hair and punctuated by round blue eyes, was reason enough for dozens of still photos and minute after minute of video.
But little Cami Santee is more than just a pretty face. She's a miracle -- one for whom Mr. Santee and Ms. Dobrinski thank God and fetal pediatric surgeon Timothy Crombleholme of the Fetal Care Center of Cincinnati. Cami was delivered two months prematurely after he performed fetal surgery to remove an external tumor that was nearly as big as she was. He did additional procedures to restore function to her intestinal and urinary tracts, which were blocked by an internal tumor that filled her abdomen and pelvis.
Dr. Crombleholme, who is renowned for his fetal surgical skills, left out his own talent when asked what allowed Cami to live.
"I think it was part luck, the persistence of her parents and the support of an excellent maternal fetal medical specialist in Paul Speer" at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, he said.
PDFDr. Speer, part of the team that cared for Ms. Dobrinski in Magee's Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center for several months, recommended and referred the mother to Dr. Crombleholme in case open fetal surgery was needed. Magee's fetal center, in a process of development and expansion, does not yet do those procedures. "We will soon," said Dr. Stephen Emery, director of the Magee center and another maternal/fetal medicine specialist who cared for Ms. Dobrinski.
As it turned out, open fetal surgery was not needed, but plenty of other surgical work was done before Cami was delivered.
First Published February 3, 2010 12:00 am
