Narina and Chris remember when fetal renal failure first showed up: as an ominous black dot on the ultrasound. Narina remembers sitting in the lobby of her Seattle obstetrician (OB) office a few weeks later, 18 weeks pregnant, sobbing. “The OB’s exact words were, ‘Your baby is going to die,’” Narina says. “It was horrible.”
FRF is marked by the inability to produce sufficient urine to maintain normal amniotic fluid volume, which is essential for normal fetal lung development. In FRF, the lack of amniotic fluid limits lung development and causes a life-threatening condition where the baby is unable to breathe on their own after birth.
The next day, she and husband Chris went to their maternal fetal medicine (MFM) doctor, desperate for a second opinion. Was all hope really lost? Was there truly nothing else they could try?
The MFM answered cautiously, careful not to get their hopes up. He knew of just one doctor in the U.S. who might be able to help: Timothy Crombleholme, MD, FACS, FAAP. This doctor, he told them, was leading fetal care techniques that went beyond imagination — and had developed the very technology Narina needed. Narina and Chris prayed for a miracle. They found it in the nation’s top fetal surgeon, and the innovative technology he’d created.
Learn more about the life saving technology and innovative technique developed by Dr. Crombleholme.
