A baby from Texas, U.S.A., has technically been born twice – as she was removed from her mother’s womb for a life-saving surgery before being placed back for the birth.
Baby Lynlee Boemer was taken out of her mother’s uterus for 20 minutes while surgery was performed to remove a tumour on her spine.
The spinal mass was diverting blood away from her heart, raising the risk of unborn Lynlee having a fatal heart failure. Her unborn twin sadly lost her life earlier in the pregnancy.
At just 0.53kg, Lynlee was almost the same size as the spinal tumour when she was taken out of her mother’s womb and the mass was removed by a team of experts.
After being placed back into her mother, Lynlee was allowed to grow for 12 weeks while her mother rested.
On June 6th, she entered the world for a second time, weighing in at 2.4kg.
Doctor Darrell Cass of Texas Children’s Fetal Centre was one of the team to carry out the surgery, confirming to press that baby Boemer is doing beautifully after her early ordeal.
“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,” explains mum Margaret Boemer.
“It was an easy decision for us: We wanted to give her life.”
