A Lewisville, Texas, mother recently welcomed a baby girl at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, 12 weeks after physicians partially delivered her to remove a spinal tumor and then returned her to the womb to allow for normal development, according to The Washington Post.
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The baby's mother, Margaret Boeme, and her husband first found about the tumor during a prenatal appointment.
"[My prenatal physician] was very concerned about it because of the size of the tumor being that early along," the baby's mother, Margaret Boeme, told The Washington Post. "She felt like that there was a strong possibility that [the baby], Lynlee, would not make it to term."
Medical professionals subsequently advised the couple to visit two more specialized hospitals in Houston for additional opinions.
One hospital in Houston "strongly recommended" the Boemers end the pregnancy, and they were told performing open fetal surgery was too risky, according to the report.
Physicians at Texas Children's Hospital meanwhile examined the tumor and agreed that in utero surgery was needed, and the couple found out that two physicians there — Darrell Cass, MD, and Oluyinka Olutoye, MD, had previously successfully done such a procedure, reports The Washington Post. Mrs. Boemer ultimately went into surgery after careful consideration.
Lynlee's heart stopped and needed to be restarted in the middle of the procedure, and the baby also required a blood transfusion, according to the report. However, the surgery, conducted by Drs. Cass and Olutoye and a team of about 20 others, was ultimately successful.
After the surgery, Lynlee continued to grow, and last June — nearly 36 weeks into her pregnancy — Mrs. Boemer underwent a C-section, according to the report.
"You can say she's seen the world twice," Dr. Olutoye said in the report.
Lynlee underwent another surgery when she was eight days old to remove the rest of the tumor from her tailbone, according to the report. The report states that she may need to have some pelvic muscles reconstructed in the future, but is otherwise recovering well.