Nigerian surgeon removes baby from mother’s womb, operates on her tumor & returns her back

LynLee Hope who suffered from a tumor know a ‘sacrococcygeal teratoma’
 underwent a crucial operation at 23 weeks and then returned to her
mother’s womb. She healed and continued to grow until she was born again
at 36 weeks. This amazing feat was performed by a surgeon who is
 nigerian but  based in the U.S , Dr Oluyinka Olutoye, and his surgeon
partner , Dr. Darrell Cass of Texas Children’s Hospital
When Margaret Boemer went for a routine ultrasound 16 weeks into her
pregnancy with her third child, she found out that things were far from
routine.

“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,” the Plano, Texas, mom 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 birth and grows
from a baby’s coccyx, the tailbone.  Found more often in girls than
boys, this tumor occurs in one out of every 35,000 births.

“This is the most common tumor we see in a newborn,” said Dr. Darrell
Cass, co-director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center and associate
professor of surgery, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology at Baylor
College Medicine. “Even though it’s the most common we see, it’s still
pretty rare.”

Booemer had been pregnant with twins, but lost one of the babies before
her second trimester so it was a shock at 16 weeks to learn of her
daughter’s rare birth defect.

“Some of these tumors can be very well-tolerated, so the fetus has it
and can get born with it and we can take it out after the baby’s born,”
said Cass. “But about half of the time, they cause problems for the
fetus and it’s usually causing problems because of a blood flow
problem.” 

Cass explained 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,” he
said.

With a large tumor stealing the blood supply, Boemer’s fetus was
becoming more ill each day, doctors explained to the expectant mother.
Something had to be done.
Although other doctors had advised her to terminate the pregnancy, Cass
and his team told her about another possibility: fetal surgery. This
option, though, would not be an easy road. Even worse, her baby’s
chances of survival would be grim.

“LynLee didn’t have much of a chance,” Boemer said. “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.

She was 23 weeks and 5 days pregnant, when Cass and his partner surgeon,
Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, performed the emergency fetal surgery. By this
time, the tumor was nearly larger than the fetus. They operated for
about five hours.

“The part on the fetus we do very, very quickly,” said Cass. “It’s only
20 minutes or so on the actual fetus.” Most of the time is spent opening
the uterus, which he described as “a big muscle lined with membranes.
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.”

Still, Cass said, the tumor in this case was so large a huge incision
was needed to get to it, “so it ended up that the baby was hanging out
in the air… Essentially, the fetus is outside, like completely out,
all the amniotic fluid falls out, it’s actually fairly dramatic,” said
Cass.

During the surgery, LynLee’s heart slowed down to an incredibly low rate.

“It basically stopped,” said Cass. He credits the heart specialist, a
key member of the team, for giving the right medication and transfusing
the right amount of fluid, allowing the surgeons to continue their work.
The surgical team removed the bulk of the tumor. When they finished
their operation, the surgeons placed LynLee back inside the womb and
sewed her mother’s uterus 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 was on bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy. Despite her
pain, she marshaled her strength and made it another 12 weeks to nearly
36 weeks — full term — when Lynlee Hope was born for the second time
via C-section on June 6. She weighed 5 pounds and 5 ounces.

After she was born, LynLee faced one more ordeal: removing the bits of
tumor that surgeons could not reach, which had begun to grow again.

“At eight days old, she had more surgery, and they were able to remove
the rest of the tumor,” explained Boemer. LynLee recovered in the NICU
and weeks later, arrived in her family home. Baby Boemer is still an
infant but is doing beautiful,” said Cass, remarking that she is
perfectly healthy. His one previous surgery of this kind was also a
success. “I think she’s about 7 now, and she sings karaoke to Taylor
swift — she’s completely normal,” said Cass. 

Source: CNN