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A California family is celebrating their first holiday following the delivery of their latest child, a baby that had been growing outside of the mother’s womb.
Suze Lopez, a 41-year-old emergency room nurse in Bakersfield, California, delivered baby Ryu via surgery in August, so the newborn is celebrating his first Christmas. He had been an ectopic pregnancy – when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the uterus – and was hidden behind a large ovarian cyst.
Doctors at Ceder-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles called the dangerous pregnancy extremely rare – occurring in just one in 30,000 pregnancies – and have plans to document the case in medical journals.
Dr John Ozimek, who oversees the hospital’s labor and delivery ward, remarked that pregnancies outside the uterus that reach full term “are essentially unheard of – far, far less than one in a million”, he said to the Associated Press. “I mean, this is really insane,” he added.
Lopez found out that she was pregnant only days before giving birth. Since her 20s, she had been dealing with ovarian cysts. She previously had her right ovary removed along with another cyst.
For months, doctors had been monitoring a 22lb cyst on Lopez’s abdomen. After dealing with increasing abdominal pain and pressure, Lopez visited doctors to see about having it removed. But during her appointment, after taking a routine pregnancy test, Lopez discovered that she was pregnant.
Despite the positive test, Lopez hadn’t noted any pregnancy symptoms. “Because of the large ovarian cyst that had been growing for years, it could have been a false positive, even ovarian cancer,” said Lopez in a Cedars-Sinai press release. “And I was used to very irregular periods and some abdominal discomfort. I could not believe that after 17 years of praying, and trying, for a second child, that I was actually pregnant.”
But days later, Lopez returned to the hospital with abdominal pain and dangerously high blood pressure. Doctors discovered that, while Lopez’s uterus was empty, a fetus was concealed in her abdomen.
Baby Ryu was delivered on 18 August, with the team of 30 doctors also removing Lopez’s cyst during the same procedure. Lopez reportedly lost a lot of blood during the surgery and Ryu spent two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, SFGate reported. Both mother and baby made a full recovery.
A spokesperson at Cedars-Sinai confirmed that Lopez and baby Ryu are in good health: “The family is doing great. Mom and baby [are] all thriving.”
The Guardian could not reach Lopez for comment, but the mother of two shared a holiday update on Facebook, writing: “Praise the Lord. Our family has a very special and surprising Christmas gift this year.”
