Mother and baby survive after complex secondary abdominal pregnancy surgery

Raipur: Doctors at the state-run Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Hospital in Raipur successfully saved both a mother and her baby after performing a challenging surgery for a secondary abdominal pregnancy. The case, which involved a live foetus developing outside the uterus, was described by the medical team as the first in Chhattisgarh and among the rarest in the world.A 40-year-old pregnant woman delivered a live baby through a complex procedure performed by the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department team from Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Medical College (Pt. JNMMC) and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar Memorial Hospital, a hospital spokesperson said. "We waited more than a month to share this information to ensure that both the mother and the baby fully recovered. Probably, this is the world's first emergency angioplasty and successful delivery of abdominal pregnancy," the spokesperson added. In a secondary abdominal pregnancy, the foetus implants and grows in the peritoneal cavity outside the womb. Doctors said this complex case is the first reported in Central India and ranks among the most unusual occurrences in global medical literature.The case is of particular significance because the woman underwent an emergency angioplasty during her fourth month of pregnancy while the foetus was still in the abdominal cavity. Angioplasty during pregnancy is extremely rare, and in this instance, the Advanced Cardiac Institute team took exceptional precautions to avoid harm to the unborn baby. Despite the mother being on blood-thinning medication throughout the pregnancy, the foetus survived.The patient returned to the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department in her 37th week of pregnancy and was admitted immediately. Given the complexity of the case, a multidisciplinary team comprising specialists from the Gynaecology, Surgery, Anaesthesia, and Cardiology departments was formed for the operation.During the surgery, the team discovered that the foetus was developing in the abdominal cavity, and the placenta was drawing blood from multiple organs. The surgical team safely delivered the baby and, to prevent potentially fatal haemorrhage, carefully removed the adherent placenta along with the uterus.Dr Jyoti Jaiswal, Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Dr Ruchi Kishore Gupta, obstetrician and gynaecologist, said the baby was born safely and the mother recovered completely.Doctors said the baby is especially "precious" to the mother, who earlier lost a child to Down syndrome and congenital heart disease. The successful delivery has brought immense joy to the family. The medical team plans to document and publish the case in an international medical journal.Explaining the condition, Dr Jaiswal said that secondary abdominal pregnancy is a form of ectopic pregnancy in which the foetus initially implants in the uterus or Fallopian tube but later dislodges and attaches to an abdominal organ such as the intestine, liver, spleen, omentum, or the outer surface of the uterus."This condition poses an extreme risk to the mother due to the high likelihood of massive blood loss and complications," she said.