Photo: Courtesy of Boston Children's
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A doctor at Boston Children's made an appearance on a popular medical show last week and got to share his own medical expertise.
Dr. Darren Orbach, chief of Neuroradiology at Boston Children's, made his debut on "Grey's Anatomy" last week. The episode was based on a procedure he performed last year, making him the first doctor in North America to successfully perform the experimental surgery to treat a rare blood cluster abnormality in an unborn baby's brain.
"Grey's Anatomy" has a practicing physician on staff who looks for cutting-edge procedures to feature on the show. After learning of the first-of-its-kind fetal embolization surgery to treat vein of Galen malformation, performed at Boston Children's Maternal Fetal Care Center, show producers reached out to Dr. Orbach to ask for him to consult on the script and make sure the episode was medically accurate.
Dr. Orbach and his son made an appearance in the fourth episode of the 20th season of "Grey's" where they got to act and meet the on-screen doctors.
"Looking at [my son's] face as all these stars came up and introduced themselves to him and he would say of course I know exactly who you are, it was fantastic," Dr. Orbach told WBZ NewsRadio's Brooke McCarthy.
The show also got permission from the hospital and the real-life patient to use the actual ultrasounds and scans in the episode.
"So that was all broadcast on the monitors in their OR which was amazing for me too to see my own patient's images up there," Dr. Orbach said.
Now, Dr. Orbach is focused on a clinical trial for fetal embolization.
"This is a very promising technique, definitely in its early days and we have to do the trials just to verify the safety and ethicacy," he said.
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