Crazy Glue Saves Baby Girl’s Life

Joely Finkelstein, a six-month-old baby girl has already beaten the odds more than a few times. Most recently, by beating a brain malformation – with the help of some super glue.

The newborn and her twin brother Jared started out life fairly normally for twins, until a few months later, when Joely’s head began enlarging – with veins popping out in her scalp.

It led to a terrifying phone call.

“I just remember her saying something about a severe defect in her brain,” said Darby Finkelstein, Joely’s mother. “And that we needed to get to the emergency room and that the nurse would meet us there.”

Internet research led the Finkelsteins to Dr. Alejandro Berenstein of St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital – a world expert on the defect in Joely’s head.

It’s called a Vein of Galen malformation – a short circuit between arteries and veins. It enlarges the veins, preventing brain fluid from draining normally, leading to the abnormal growth in her head.

The problem needed an immediate fix.

“We know that before the availability of these techniques to treat these children, it was a nearly fatal disease,” said Dr Berenstein. “There was practically a 95 percent chance of dying before the end of the first year of life, and maybe less than 5 percent to have a normal child by the end of 10 years.”

The treatment the young patient is about the undergo is the second one that she has had.

How does it work? Dr. Berenstein threads a micro-catheter through an artery in Joely’s groin, all the way into the malformation in her brain. Then in a delicate procedure, he actually injects tiny amounts of medical grade super glue, closing off the vessels feeding the Vein of Galen short circuit.

After the first treatment, the malformation immediately began shrinking, and Joely’s parents noticed the difference instantly on the outside.

“Her eyes looked brighter, her coloring looked better, she just looked like a different baby,” said Finklestein. “It was really quite amazing. She really, personality-wise, turned into this happy, charming little baby who will ham it up for anybody that looks at her. And that was not her pre-surgery personality.”

The whole family is home in Chicago after the successful procedure – hoping their only trips back to the Big Apple will be for sightseeing.

{CBS/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}