Ormond Street doctors use glue to save baby's life

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital have saved the life of a critically ill baby with a pioneering treatment that used superglue to fix his rare brain condition.

Dafi Evans was born suffering from Vein of Galen malformation, which causes abnormal communication between the arteries and veins in the victim's brain.

Sufferers usually die within days of being born but experts at the London Hospital operated before he was even a day old and used a tissue adhesive known as Histoacryl - similar to superglue - to block the affected area of Dafi's brain.

He is now 16 months old and although he faces further operations, his parents and doctors are delighted with his progress.

His mother Catrin Evans, 32, said: "It's been a rollercoaster year but he's well and doing everything that he should, developing as he should. It's great. It's unbelievable."

Mrs Evans, from Talgarreg, west Wales, was heavily pregnant when she and husband Eilir were told their unborn baby had the condition.

A scan had revealed a dark patch in Dafi's head and they were sent to see specialist Dr Stefan Brew, a consultant interventional neuro-radiologist from Great Ormond Street.

Dafi was delivered at the Elizabeth Garett Anderson hospital and immediately whisked off to Great Ormond Street for the glue treatment.

When he was one day old, Dafi underwent his first operation when surgeons squeezed glue into the affected part of the brain, plugging the leak.

Dafi improved straight away and was able to go home but a check two months later detected a second leak.

Dr Brew then performed the operation a second time. Most children need several operations. Dafi had his fifth on his first birthday and expects a sixth next month.