When Margaret Boemer went in for a routine ultrasound when she was 16 weeks pregnant, she received some frightening news.
“They saw something on the scan, and the doctor came in and told us that there was something seriously wrong with our baby and that she had a sacrococcygeal teratoma,” Boemer said in an interview shared by Texas Children’s Hospital. “And it was very shocking and scary because we didn’t know what that long word meant or what diagnosis that would bring.”
Sacrococcygeal teratoma is a tumor that develops before a child’s birth and grows from a baby’s tailbone. “This is the most common tumor we see in a newborn,” said Dr. Darrell Cass, co-director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center. Sadly, he continued, “Even though it’s the most common we see, it’s still pretty rare.” It usually occurs in one out of every 35,000 births.
Dr. Cass explained it perfectly, saying that the tumor is trying to grow by sucking blood flow from the baby, yet the baby is also trying to grow, too “so it becomes a competition.” “And in some instances, the tumor wins and the heart just can’t keep up and the heart goes into failure and the baby dies,” said Cass.
This news was devastating to Boemer, and because her fetus was becoming sicker each day, something had to be done. When doctors advised Boemer to terminate the pregnancy, she refused, so her only other option was fetal surgery. “At 23 weeks, the tumor was shutting her heart down and causing her to go into cardiac failure, so it was a choice of allowing the tumor to take over her body or giving her a chance at life. It was an easy decision for us: We wanted to give her life.”
The surgery took about five hours, and most of the time was spent opening the uterus, according to Dr. Cass. “We don’t want the mom’s health to be jeopardized,” said Cass, who explained they work carefully, both making the incision and sewing it up in order “to make that uterus be as sealed and as water tight as possible.”
During the surgery baby LynLee’s heart “basically stopped,” but LynLee was able to be placed back inside the womb and her Boemer’s uterus was sewed shut. “It’s kind of a miracle you’re able to open the uterus like that and seal it all back and the whole thing works,” said Cass. Boemer went on to give birth to LynLee Hope at 36 weeks pregnant on June 6.
“At eight days old, she had more surgery, and they were able to remove the rest of the tumor,” explained Boemer. But after a couple of weeks, she was able to go home. “Baby Boemer is still an infant but is doing beautiful,” said Dr. Cass. While babies undergoing this surgery normally run a small chance of surviving, LynLee made it, and her mom says while it was a very difficult journey, “it was worth every pain.”
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[Featured Image Credit: Boemer family photo via CNN.com]
Baby Was Removed From The Womb Before Birth, Then Returned is an article from: LifeDaily