The balloon surgery is not done at very many hospitals in the US, very experimental and to qualify for this type of surgery the CDH case has to be very severe, for there are risks for mom and baby when the surgery is done. The do the surgery at UCSF and are doing trials at Texas Children's. I am not sure if there are others out there still doing the surgery?? St. Louis does a gel procedure, not a balloon. Doctors here in the US say it doesn't increase a baby's odds much, the reason so many hospitals do not do this surgery. A good friend I met through CHERUBS, was the first trial at Texas Children's last year and her baby Milan is thriving and now home. They lost their first son to CDH and when Milan was also diagnosed with CDH and it being very severe they opted to be included in this trial, so happy they did.

The UK does the balloon surgery a lot in CDH cases. We have several parents in old threads here at CHERUBS that talk about the surgery and what they went through. Many of the babies that do the balloon surgery have been given very low survival rates and that is why they choose the surgery, to try to improve them. The surgery just allows the lungs to expand more and grow with everything up in the chest cavity.

TV shows do not get CDH right at all...it is very frustrating. So much needs to be done for awareness and in the right way. I have never really seen CDH portrayed on TV the right way, in any medical show or TV drama show.

I think you are safe to listen to your doctors and put faith into them. I always question who determines how severe a CDH case, it is just a percentage of survival, a person's opinion. They use the LHR and tests, but there is so much a doctor cannot predict, if the baby will have pulmonary hypertension, issues with the medical intervention, infections, and the list goes on.

Try to think positive thoughts....your little guy is going to come out fighting and your doctors will do everything possible for your little guy. (((HUGS)))