The story of Elena, a baby who underwent spina bifida surgery
Halfway through the pregnancy, the fetus was removed from the mother’s womb to repair the spinal cord and reinserted in a pioneering operation.
When we arrived at Guillermo’s medical consultation, our baby was experiencing tachycardia, and we didn’t know how long it had been happening or if we would get through it.
Guillermo not only knew how to handle the situation and our nerves and uncertainties but also saved our baby’s life.
It is worth noting that he is an excellent doctor, but also an excellent person. He had a way of delivering information and updates with great tact and care, which made us always feel very secure in his hands.
From the first day I was in his office, the only thing I was sure of was that we were in the best hands and had to trust him completely. Thanks to that, today my baby is 18 months old and healthy.
We keep in touch with Guillermo, who is now part of our little family.
We are very grateful to him.
You arrive at a hospital in a city that is not your own, full of fear because your pregnancy is not going well, and you must trust someone you do not know. But after several consultations with the doctor, you realize that he makes things easier for you, is accessible, gives you confidence, and, above all, is very humane and knows how to treat his patients with care. He did not hesitate to give me his personal phone number to finalize the last details of the operation.
That day, before going into the operating room, he came to greet me, and all the nervousness disappeared because the confidence I had in him and his team was absolute, and it couldn’t have been otherwise—the operation was a complete success. After the operation, his dedication to my case was exceptional. He came almost daily to see me in the room, apart from the check-ups in his office, and if he couldn’t, there was a phone call or WhatsApp message.
In my family, there is not a day that we do not remember Guillermo, as we see the good progress of our daughter and know that it is thanks to him and his great team. Elena is a miracle of science.
Thank God for putting Dr. Antiñolo in my path to save my child’s life.
I got pregnant in September 2022. Due to my age (50), I was worried about my baby’s health and was seeing two different gynecologists to have more control over the pregnancy and have more frequent ultrasounds. These two gynecologists treated my pregnancy from the beginning as if it were just another pregnancy, without considering my age or showing empathy for the fact that it was practically my only chance to become a mother. My perception was that they did not take it seriously and that the doctor was even annoyed that I had gotten pregnant at my age.
Both gynecologists saw me once a month separately, and according to them, everything was going well. But at week 20, the doctor who performed the Doppler told me that my uterine artery was starting to malfunction. Without giving it much importance, he told me to take an aspirin a day. Just like that. I was already taking aspirin as a preventive measure.
At week 24, when I went back to see the doctor, she said the baby was very small. She gave me referrals for another Doppler and an amniocentesis and told me to come back to her office the next month.
I had a Doppler done privately in the following days, and the next week (week 25), I went back to her office, and she said, annoyed: “I saw you last week,” to which I replied, of course, and that I was bringing the Doppler I had done privately. She said that I could not continue to be monitored privately and that I should go to the public health system. Being a public servant, it was not so easy for me.
Thanks to a call to a gynecological clinic to have the Doppler ultrasound done privately, I was told about the doctor who knew the most about fetal medicine in Andalusia, and thanks to them, I had my first consultation with Guillermo Antiñolo on March 8, 2023.
It was the first time I felt truly understood by a doctor who took my case seriously and explained the gravity of my situation and my baby’s. My son was an IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction) stage 2 baby, and he would probably need to be delivered very prematurely and spend a lot of time in the incubator. I left that consultation knowing that I was now in the hands of someone who really knew what needed to be done, and I also left with a lot of fear, knowing I was in a very critical situation.
Dr. Antiñolo referred me to the Women’s Hospital the next day, and a week later, on March 17, my baby was born at IUGR stage 3. My baby was born at week 27, weighing 690 grams. I have never been more scared in my life than that day until I heard my baby’s cry in the operating room where I had the cesarean. Nor have I felt more emotion.
Then came the worst five days of my life because my baby had to undergo emergency surgery twice. After those two operations, he spent four months in the neonatal ICU at Virgen del Rocío, and I was with him all the time, except for a few hours at night to sleep.
Today, I couldn’t be happier and more grateful to God and Dr. Antiñolo. Also, of course, to the rest of the healthcare team who were with us during those four months. My son is doing extremely well today, he has a lot of energy, and he is a very happy baby. He is already one year old, and you can hardly notice the difference between his chronological age and his corrected age.
I am so proud of my little boy because he has fought like a true warrior since he was in the womb, and I am immensely grateful to be his mother. He is the most wonderful thing that has happened to me. He is my little great example to follow and my little great teacher.