Operation Saves Mother, but a 330-Pound Baby Is Stillborn
By MICHELLE YORK
Published: June 9, 2006
She had been in labor since Sunday, but the contractions remained weak. So on Wednesday night, experts from Missouri and Florida flew to Syracuse to assist in a rare emergency surgery on the 29-year-old patient -- an Asian elephant named Romani.
Employees at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo had worked into the night to transform an elephant barn into an operating room for the surgical procedure, known as a vestibulotomy, to widen the birth canal.
An eight-member team gathered on Thursday morning to perform the procedure, similar in concept to an episiotomy in human births but much rarer -- with only an estimated seven previously performed in the world, a zoo spokeswoman said.
Reporters camped outside during the four-hour operation. Volunteers brought changes of clothing and food for the team. Dozens of people sent e-mail messages to the zoo or called with concern. ''She's a huge asset to the zoo,'' Sarah Fedele, a zoo spokeswoman, said of Romani.
But the veterinarians discovered that the legs of the 330-pound calf were splayed inside the birth canal, causing it to become stuck. The calf, a female, had died.
The team had to push the calf back into the uterus to reposition it, and then pull it back through the canal, said the lead veterinarian, Dr. Dennis Schmitt, a professor of veterinary medicine from Missouri State University. Other members of the surgical team came from Cornell University in Ithaca, and Disney's Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Fla.
After the surgery, they were cautiously hopeful about Romani. ''She's doing very well,'' Dr. Schmitt said.
Romani, who weights 8,200 pounds, has given birth to other calves while in captivity at the zoo -- a male, Tundi, in 1991, and two females, Kirina, in 1995, and Preya in 2002. In the previous births, Romani required some minor assistance. ''She doesn't like the pain,'' Ms. Fedele said. ''Not that I can blame her.''
In those deliveries, veterinarians kept labor moving with massages and injections of Oxytocin to help stimulate contractions. Those techniques did not work this time, but veterinarians were unable to determine why. ''In elephants, there are a lot of unknowns in the birthing process,'' Dr. Schmitt said.
After the surgery on Thursday, the team walked Romani around. Her vital signs looked good, so they took her to see her daughter Kirina, said the zoo director, Chuck Doyle, who has worked with Romani for 21 years.
''They bonded a little,'' he said. ''They were definitely glad to see each other.''
Photo: Romani the elephant with members of the medical team that performed the operation that saved her life, from left, Noha Abou-madi, Beth Bunting, Susie Bartlett, Rolfe Radcliffe and Dr. George Kollias. (Photo by Rosamond Gifford Zoo)