Baby is ‘born for the second time’ after being removed from mother’s womb at 24 weeks for life-saving op and then sewn back inside
TOT is now thriving after docs removed a tumour mid-way through pregnancy
WHEN little Lynlee Boemer was born in June it was not the first time she’d left the womb.
In fact, the tiny fighter has made a brief entrance into the world at week 24 of her mum Margaret’s pregnancy – for a life-saving operation to remove a tumour.
Then she was placed back inside to go full term in an amazing foetal operation.
Margaret Boemer said: “It was her second birth, basically.”
The expectant mum and husband Hawkins first found out there was something wrong in a routine 16 week scan, when doctors found a rare tumour called a “sacrococcygeal teratoma”.
In an interview shared by the Texas Children’s Hospital she explained: “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.
“And it was very shocking and scary, because we didn’t know what that long word meant or what diagnosis that would bring.”
The tumour, which grows on the tailbone, is more common in girls and affects one in 35,000 births.
Doctor Darrell Cass, co-director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center, said: “This is the most common tumour we see in a newborn. Even though it’s the most common we see, it’s still pretty rare.”
In many cases, the tumour can be removed after the birth but in around half the babies diagnosed, they cause blood flow problems which can be potentially fatal.
Dr Cass explained that the tumour 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.”
He added: “In some instances, the tumour wins and the heart just can’t keep up and the heart goes into failure and the baby dies.”
Margaret, who had already lost Lynlee’s twin earlier in the pregnancy, faced the agonising prospect of a termination or stillbirth until Dr Cass and his team intervened to offer life-saving surgery.
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Even so, the chance of it working was slim.
Margaret – who has two other children – said: “Lynlee didn’t have much of a chance.
“At 23 weeks, the tumour was shutting her heart down and causing her to go into cardiac failure, so it was a choice of allowing the tumour 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.”
So 23 weeks and 5 days into the pregnancy, Dr Cass performed a ceasarian to remove the tiny foetus from Margaret’s womb and remove the tumour in a five hour operation.
By this time, the growth was larger than Lynlee’s tiny body but the team took just 20 minutes to cut it out and return her to her mum’s tum.
Despite their quick work, Lynlee’s heart stopped during surgery and a heart specialist used medicine and fluids to get it working again.
When the surgeons had finished operating on the tot they placed her back inside the womb and sewed her mother’s uterus shut.
Dr Cass said: “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.”
Margaret was ordered to rest in bed for the rest of her term and Lynlee was born – for the second time – at 36 weeks.
The joyful mum said: “It was a relief to finally see her and see that she had made it through all the difficulty that she had and with her heart.
“After the open foetal surgery, her heart had time to heal while I was still pregnant with her, so she has no heart issues now and is just doing amazing.”
A second operation at eight days removed the remainder of the tumour and Lynlee is now a thriving healthy baby.