A remarkable medical feat, the second of its kind in the world and the first in Africa, has been successfully accomplished in Ethiopia.
A baby who received a total of 10 blood transfusions while still in the mother's womb was born healthy on Thursday, successfully turning a mother's deep anxiety into profound joy.
The patient, 28 years old Senait Tamirat, had previously suffered the devastating loss of a child due to a condition known locally as Shotelay (medically identified as Rh incompatibility or alloimmunization) during a prior pregnancy.
While receiving routine follow-up care at a health center, the painful memory of her past loss filled her with intense anxiety, worrying that she would lose this child too.
At 21 weeks of gestation, she was referred from her health center to the specialized Abebech Gobena Mother and Child Care Center. Examinations there confirmed the dire diagnosis: the fetus had developed severe anemia due to the Shotelay condition.
Faced with this high-risk situation, the sub-specialist doctors at the center consulted and determined that an intrauterine blood transfusion was the only alternative solution for the fetus's survival, despite the challenge posed by the fetus’s young age—only 21 weeks—and its tiny, difficult-to-access blood vessels.
The first blood transfusion was performed with extreme caution. The patient's initial follow-up required her to visit the medical center twice a week. As the fetus began to show signs of improvement, growth, and development, the visits were gradually reduced to once a week. The rigorous monitoring for both mother and child continued, with the blood transfusion procedure being repeated a total of 10 times.
When the pregnancy reached term, the mother successfully delivered a healthy baby weighing 3.5 kilograms via Caesarean section, finally able to embrace her child. This extraordinary case, which occurred on Thursday at the Abebech Gobena Mother and Child Care Center of the Yekatit 12 Hospital Medical College, has made medical history.
The baby is registered as the second child in the world to successfully undergo 10 intrauterine blood transfusions and enter the world healthy. The first successful case involving a fetus receiving 10 intrauterine transfusions was recorded in Brazil.
The Ethiopian success is notably unique because it is the first in Africa and involved a fetus that was only 21 weeks old when the complex treatment regimen began. It is noted that this treatment—intrauterine blood transfusion—is available in Ethiopia at medical centers including St. Paul's Hospital, Black Lion Hospital, and the Yekatit 12 Abebech Gobena Mother and Child Care Center, and is commonly performed for fetuses that are 30 weeks or older until close to the delivery date.
According to Neftalem Engdawerk's report, as of yesterday, both the mother and the child at the Yekatit 12 Hospital Medical College Abebech Gobena Mother and Child Care Center are reported to be in excellent health.
