Tucson doctor performs Arizonas first fetal spina bifida surgery [Video]

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Ramon Alberto Contreras weighs 5 pounds and 6 ounces.

At only two days old, he’s making medical history.

“Back a couple of months ago,” said Dr. Ken Liechty, the director of fetal medicine at Banner University Medical Center, “we performed the first open fetal surgery to repair spina bifida in a baby, and today, they’re going home.”

Priscila Carranza Olea found out her baby had spina bifida after a structural MRI at 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Spina bifida is when the neural tube along your back doesn’t close during pregnancy, which may lead to an opening in the spine.

Immediately, she and her husband, Ramon Alberto Contreras Armenta, were scrambling to find a doctor before she hit 26 weeks.

“If you repair spina bifida before the baby is 26 weeks,” stated Dr. Ken Liechty, “they have better outcomes from needing a ventricular perineal shunt and improvement in ability to walk at 30 months of …