HJNO Jan/Feb 2025

54 JAN / FEB 2025 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS CHILDREN’S HEALTH COLUMN CHILDREN’S HEALTH LAST YEAR, I was blessed to meet an amazing baby and supportive and driv- en family. Lydia Lounsberry came into the world in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The delivery team was scrambling when they discovered she was born with her bladder outside of her body, a condition known as bladder exstrophy — a rare congenital ab- normality affecting approximately one in 50,000 children. Patients with this condi- tion are born with the bladder exposed on the abdominal wall, and the pelvic bones are widely separated. In Lydia’s case, the decision was made quickly to transfer her to Children’s Hospital New Orleans where she could receive the specialized assess- ment and care she needed. Lydia was the product of a term preg- nancy and in many ways unique to her peers in the NICU who are often in more critical conditions. While our initial plans did not include immediate reconstruction, her stay in the NICU allowed us to get to know her and her parents and for them to get a sense of who we are and what we do at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. There were certainly mixed emotions when we mentioned that immediate surgery wasn’t needed, though there was still a long jour- ney ahead. Lydia’s closure surgery — which would put her bladder inside her abdomen, close her pelvis around it, and correct the flar- ing of her hips — would be more successful when she was older. A current approach Specialized Surgical Care Delivers Hope: From a Diagnosis of Bladder Exstrophy at Birth to a Thriving Toddler