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When Orla Hearne was pregnant with her son Jack, she’d been told at her 20-week scan that there was something wrong with the pregnancy.
The ultrasound had revealed that there was a “dark ball floating above the baby’s stomach,” which the doctor quickly determined to be a sign of Jack’s gastroschisis, a birth defect where a baby’s intestines, stomach, and other organs are born outside the body because the abdomen has failed to properly form.
Orla, having just suffered from a miscarriage, was terrified that something else would happen to keep her from getting Jack.
Although Orla was induced at 37 weeks, Jack was born safely and naturally – in spite of his birth defect. His intestines and bladder were, indeed, born outside of his stomach.
Immediately after his birth, Jack was wrapped in plastic kitchen wrap to keep his organs close by and lower the risk of him developing an infection from having such a large opening on his body.
Orla recalled, “As soon as I heard him cry I was so relieved, a team of doctors quickly wrapped his stomach in cling film and he was taken straight to intensive care before surgery.”
The doctors were, thankfully, able to place all of Jack’s internal organs back into his body in two surgical procedures. On the day of his birth, doctors re-inserted two-thirds of his organs back into his body. The following morning, the doctors finished the procedure with the remaining third of his organs outside his body.
Jack’s doctors speculated that he would have to spend the next three months in the hospital, but the Hearne family was able to reunite at home just four weeks on.
“Jack has made an amazing recovery and we are all so thankful to finally have him home with us,” Orla said of the entire experience.
