Cutting Edge: Meet the Nigerian-born doctor behind one of the largest pediatric surgery programs in the world
Nearly two years ago, Brittany Badenhop was preparing for surgery at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. But the procedure wasn’t for her.
At 25 weeks pregnant, Badenhop and her daughter—who is known now as “Baby Lexi”—underwent surgery to correct spina bifida, a condition that impacts the development of the fetus’ central nervous system.
The procedure was a success, and it also ushered in a new era for Nationwide Children’s, representing the first fetal surgery performed by the Columbus hospital.
The man behind the scalpel, and behind Nationwide Children’s recently-launched fetal medicine program, is world-renowned surgeon and Nationwide Children’s Surgeon-In-Chief, Doctor Oluyinka O. Olutoye, or Dr. O, as he’s known around the hospital. Baby Lexi’s successful intervention marked the beginning of the hospital’s Fetal Center, a comprehensive program which includes, but is not limited to, performing fetal surgery. Nationwide Children’s is one of less than two dozen hospitals with such programs in the country.
“We have fetal issues that may be identified before birth, and we often have to wait until the baby is born to address these issues,” Dr. Olutoye said. “Most of the time this is fine, but there are some conditions that we can see are deteriorating over time, and by the time the child is born, the die has already been cast. Fetal surgery gives you the opportunity to intervene early when appropriate.”
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A Surgeon in the Making
A native of Idoani, Nigeria, Dr. O recalled an interest in surgery–and pediatric procedures, specifically–ever since he was a teenager. The biography of South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard, who performed the first successful human-to-human heart transplant in 1967, stoked a fire in the young doctor-to-be that, to this day, still burns brightly.
“There was a lot in Barnard’s biography, about how fetal abnormalities develop, and it was the first time I learned that you could operate on the fetus,” Dr. Olutoye said “That stuck with me.”
He acquired his medical degree from Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, before receiving his PhD in Anatomy from Virginia Commonwealth University. Before joining Nationwide Children’s as the Surgeon-In-Chief–where he leads 12 surgical departments, and one of the world’s largest children’s hospital surgery departments–Dr. O was the co-director of the Texas Children’s Fetal Center at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
It was the allure of helping to create the foremost children’s surgery program while also having a hand in creating another fetal center from the ground up, and doing so at one of the nation’s top pediatric hospitals, that ultimately led the Nigerian native to the Buckeye State.
Nationwide, Worldwide
In 2019, Olutoye joined Nationwide Children’s as Surgeon-In-Chief, and over the next several years, he worked to assemble a star-studded team of fetal care specialists en route to launching the Nationwide Children’s Fetal Center.
“The interest for me in Columbus was having a fetal program here at a powerhouse hospital with a demonstrated record of advancing innovation and transformative care. But we knew there was no point in even creating another program if we weren’t going to make it the best,” he said.
Dr. O and Nationwide Children’s brought in experts from across the country–and the world, as far as Argentina–to create a comprehensive program that offers not just fetal surgery alone, but a holistic package of treatments, including fetal medical therapy, genetics, radiology, laser treatment, labor and delivery, neonatology and more.
And in 2023, the new Fetal Center was ready for its first surgical patient. Or, more accurately, patients.
Baby Lexi
Diagnosed with spina bifida following a 20-week ultrasound, Baby Lexi became the first case of fetal surgery through the Fetal Center when Dr. O and his team operated on Brittany Badenhop. And her procedure was a success.
The condition, which affects about 1 in every 2,000 live births in the United States, occurs when the fetal spinal column doesn’t develop properly, affecting the child’s nervous system. It can sometimes result in children requiring the help of a walker or wheelchair for their entire lives.
But not Lexi.
According to a 2024 press release from Nationwide Children’s, the Fetal Center’s first surgical patient is currently thriving. Last year, she received her one-year post-surgery MRI, which found no fluid build-up on Lexi’s brain, indicating the procedure continues to be a success.
And for Dr. O, there was also the gratification of seeing the hospital’s Fetal Center coming together and working seamlessly as a single unit.
“It was a procedure we had all done before, but it was special for us, because it was the first case here, and we saw how all of these phenomenally dedicated folks came together to make it happen,” he said. “You can have an all-star team, but if you don’t play/work well together, you don’t win.”
Now nearly two years from their first surgical patient, Dr. Olutoye and the Fetal Center continue to care for fetal patients, before and after birth, with the passion and dedication that Baby Lexi received.
“To look at Lexi, you would never suspect that there’s something different about her,” Badenhop said. “You would never suspect that she is a child with spina bifida unless you saw the little scar on her back. She looks like a typical child who is the happiest baby you’ve ever seen, smiling, laughing, having fun with her sister.”
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