In 2018, Kallie Goudey received life-changing news.
Twenty-one weeks pregnant with her second child, an anatomy scan at her obstetrician revealed her baby appeared to have spina bifida, a birth defect that happens when a baby’s spine forms with a hole or opening. This can lead to nerve damage and problems with sensation, movement and bodily functions, and it can affect the development of the brain.
Goudey was referred to UNC Health maternal-fetal medicine doctor William Goodnight, MD, who, she says, gave her and her husband “all the optimism in the world.”
“He told us that these kids can do amazing things,” she said. He also told her that she and her baby could undergo fetal surgery to close the opening. At 25 weeks and one day, Goudey was in the operating room.
“I never even knew it was a thing,” Goudey says of fetal surgery. “I was an emotional wreck beforehand, but I knew we needed to do this.”
At 36 weeks and five days, Emma Goudey was born. She looked healthy to her parents, and she was — she didn’t even require a stay in the neonatal intensive care unit.
“She walked at 10 and a half months old and was running before she was 1,” Goudey says. “I think the fetal surgery had a lot to do with preventing any further nerve damage. Even today, if you don’t see the scar, you’d have no idea.”
