Emily and Angeline Marie were taken into the operating room at 1:00 PM CST on Wednesday, April 12, 2000. Their surgery was the # 88 open womb fetal surgery for spina bifida performed at Vanderbilt University. Nurse Shelly, the sweetest and most caring nurse you could ever imagine, was taking care of my two girls. We gave her a disposable camera to snap some pictures during surgery if possible. I stayed in the hospital room together with the reporters from WKYC Channel 3, the NBC affiliate who was following us during our surgery. Shelly called into the room every fifteen minutes or so to update me of the progress of the surgical procedure. It went something like this:
1:21 PM ---> Surgery started
1:38 PM---> Dr. Bruner had removed the uterus.
2:01 PM---> Dr. Tulipan started the spinal cord repair.
2:18 PM---> Dr. Tulipan finishes the repair.
2:22 PM---> Dr. Tulipan comes into the room and personally talks to me.
2:33 PM---> Dr. Bruner puts the uterus back in.
2:46 PM---> Dr. Bruner finishes closing.
3:00 PM---> Emily is brought back to the room.
For a more detailed account of the surgery you can visit the Fetal Surgery site at Vanderbilt.
And now, click one of the links below to see some pictures (WARNING! SOME PICTURES MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN DUE TO THEIR GRAPHIC SURGICAL CONTENT!!!). . .