Change Of Heart

By Alice Park

Hitting the Target...

1 POSITIONING THE FETUS After mother and fetus were anesthetized, physicians massaged the mother's belly to bring the fetal heart near the belly wall. Then a doctor pressed down on the mother's abdomen to hold the fetus in place

2 AIMING FOR THE HEART With a specially designed needle, doctors aimed for the apex of the heart, which was the size of a grape. Once inside, they worked their way to the defective valve

...and Fixing the Flaw

3 GETTING WIRED Doctors replaced the needle tip with a thin wire that they threaded through the constricted valve

4 OPENING THE VALVE A small balloon was snaked along the wire and inflated with fluid to prop open the valve

5 LETTING THE BLOOD FLOW To make sure the balloon did its job, doctors inflated and deflated it six or seven times

Sources: Brigham & Women's Hospital, the Children's Hospital