To tears! how they saved a newborn with a tumor the size of herself
At the 16th week, the baby in the mother’s stomach already knows how to suck her thumb. On the 18th, capillary patterns appear on the fingertips, on the 19th the baby begins to somersault, and on the 20th,
eyebrows are already visible on his face, hair on his head begins to grow. Handles, legs, tiny nails — this is no longer just a fetus, it is almost a person.
Just the same amount in the womb, and he will be ready to be born. It was at this time that 32-year-old Linay Shir was advised to terminate the pregnancy.
Linai and Matt really wanted a second baby: they had a two-year-old son growing up, and they believed that now was the time to give birth to his brother or sister. Feeling the characteristic symptoms one morning, Linai realized:
hooray, the little family will soon be bigger! The pregnancy was not particularly rosy: toxicosis tormented the unfortunate woman until the 18th week.
But even then it did not work out to enjoy the situation. At the 20-week scan, the doctor told the parents that their baby had a tumor growing on the tip of her coccyx.
“Doctors suggested that this could indicate a spina bifida in a child,” says Linay. “They asked us not to google anything because it’s not clear exactly what caused the swelling.”
Linai couldn’t find a place for herself. She kept asking herself what she did wrong, that such a misfortune happened to her girl.
Forgot to take vitamins? Not eating enough healthy food? Did you move a little? Nervous? There was no answer, nor could there be.
Two days later, another examination showed that the child did not have spina bifida. But there is a sacrococcygeal teratoma, a rare congenital defect, a tumor consisting of germ cells located at the base of the coccyx.
Most of the tumor was outside, and it was just gigantic.
The doctors warned Matt and Lynay that the baby was likely to be stillborn and suggested terminating the pregnancy. But the parents decided not to do this: the MRI showed that the tumor did not affect the internal organs of the baby, which means that she has a chance.
“Our doctor has never encountered such a giant tumor. It seems that he was as shocked as we were,” recalls Linay.
The woman was now under the constant supervision of doctors. The child’s condition worsened: the tumor pulled strength from her, the baby’s heart could not cope, she developed anemia.
Now Linay had ultrasounds three times a week. With difficulty, she carried the pregnancy until the 28th week, when her water broke. Linai was sent for an emergency C-section and Zalia was born.
The girl weighed only 992 grams. The tumor was much larger than the crumb itself. The giant bump weighed almost a kilo and a half — it seemed to stick to the girl’s body with a huge parasite.
A few days later, in intensive care, the premature baby underwent surgery to remove the tumor. The surgeons worked for six hours, the baby had five blood transfusions, her heart stopped several times, and it was started again and again. Zalia survived. After 10 days, the mother was able to take her daughter in her arms for the first time.
From that moment on, things went smoothly for the baby. After 57 days, she was discharged from the hospital. And after another 5 months spent under the supervision of doctors, mother and daughter were able to go home.
