It is being celebrated as successful fetal surgery to remove a tumour that was growing at the tailbone of a foetus.
A little baby girl in Texas was born twice – She was removed from her mother’s womb for surgery and then put back until birth.
Doctors at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston noticed that little Lynlee Boemer had sacrococcygeal teratoma, a rare tumour that grows near the tailbone at the base of the spine.
Though benign in half of the cases, Lynlee’s case was life threatening. The tumour was as big as the baby and was sucking from her small body and taxing her heart.
Margaret Boemer, the mother of little Lynlee, was told that the only option was a fetal surgery to remove the tumour.
So it was up to Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, pediatric surgeon and co-director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center and Dr. Darrell Cass and pediatric surgeon and co-director of Texas Children’s Fetal Center.
The 5-hour operation took place in March when Boemer was about 24 weeks pregnant. Lynlee was pulled out of the mother’s uterus and most of the giant tumor was removed from Lynlee’s 1-pound body. The tumour weighed almost as much as Lynlee. The surgeons then placed Lynlee back inside the womb and sewed the uterus shut.
Margaret was able to carry the baby for another 12 weeks before she gave birth through Caesarian operation. So on June 6, at 36 weeks and five days, Lynlee was born at 5lbs, 5oz.
When Lynlee was eight days old, she had another surgery to remove the remaining part of the tumour.
Margaret says that Lynlee is growing, “eating a ton” and meeting her developmental milestones.
