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It doesn't matter if you look forward to your birthday with excitement or with dread, everyone marks their day of birth once a year, except one little boy who will get to do that twice a year. That's because he will have been born two times, and his mother shared the story of why on TikTok.
Jaiden Ashlea, a Florida-based fashion, beauty and lifestyle vlogger, explained in a video that when she was 19 weeks pregnant, she learned her unborn son had spina bifida, a defect where the spine and spinal cord don't form correctly. She was at first told that there was "no hope" for her son, but Jaiden got a second opinion and found an Orlando-based medical team that operates on babies before they are even born.
In what is called open fetal surgery, the specialists took out Jaiden's baby, repaired his neural-tube defect, and put him back inside her womb where he will continue to grow for the next 11 weeks.
According to the 23-year-old Jaiden, the surgery was a success but the rest of her pregnancy will be a little bit trickier. She explained, "It's very common for contractions to happen and preterm labor is always the biggest effect or impact of the surgery. But they monitor you very closely, so the next two weeks I'll be in Orlando in a Ronald McDonald House after already being in hospital for a week."
Commenters were blown away by the advancements in modern medicine. One wrote, "What a phenomenal world we live in!" and another said, "Wow! Incredible that we live in a world that doctors can do this. Amazing."
To learn more and to keep up to date with Jaiden, check out her TikTok here.