Baby Eiko and her parents at a news conference in November 2017, celebrating the successful treatment of her spina bifida in-utero. The surgery was a first in Canada.
Yesterday’s Ontario’s budget included exciting news for Sinai Health System with the announcement of a $4 million investment towards creating the Ontario Fetal Centre. Based at Mount Sinai Hospital and in partnership with SickKids, the Centre will be a specialized provincial Centre of Excellence for fetal care, research and education – the first of its kind in Canada
Together Mount Sinai and SickKids perform more than 100 in-utero fetal surgeries and procedures a year. In 2017, clinical teams at both hospitals performed the first Canadian in-utero repair of spina bifida in a fetus at 25 weeks gestation. That same year they collaborated by repairing a congenital heart defect in a fetus a few weeks before birth.
It is a testament to our organization and the talented clinicians in our fetal medicine program that our government has confidence in our programs and ability to deliver this essential service to our patients and families.