
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993                   TAG: 9309140120
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DETROIT                                LENGTH: Short

FETUS, MOTHER SURVIVE EXPERIMENTAL OPERATION

The experimental surgery on Susan Ferrans' unborn child on Monday was supposed to last five hours, but it was completed in half that time.

Doctors began the high-risk surgery at 11:30 a.m. when they partially removed the 24-week-old fetus from Ferrans' womb to correct improperly growing organs.

When it was over 2 1/2 hours later, doctors told the child's father, John Dirian, that things couldn't have gone better for his fiance and the child they've named Hope.

Because the surgery is extremely touch-and-go, Dirian said the baby's prognosis is a "second-to-second thing. But so far the news is as good as it gets."

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune

by CNB