Baby Girl Gets Tumor Successfully Shaved Off Of Mouth In Epic Surgery — In Utero

tumorLittle girls withstanding six organ transplants or miracle babies surviving without intestines often can seem like parenting urban legends. But consider for a moment the sequence of thoughts for Florida mother Tammy Gonzalez, who during a 17-week ultrasound saw a “bubble” emerging from her daughter’s mouth.

Suddenly doctors are diagnosing her little baby with oral teratoma, a rare tumor that could in fact be fatal. The BBC reports that upon diagnosing the tumor so rare that an occurrence only pops up every 20 years, doctors performed a “pioneering” procedure on the mother. With mere local anesthesia, these “savior” physicians as Tammy calls them, inserted a single needle into her tummy and then used a flippin’ laser to cut the tumor from the baby’s mouth.

This first successful treatment of fetal oral teratoma was recently revealed in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, along with news that the little baby girl is now a healthy 20-month-old named named Leyna. On her monumental surgery, the mother described her relief at a Miami press conference:

“When they finally severed the whole thing off and I could see it floating down, it was like this huge weight had been lifted off me and I could finally see her face.”

Much like the recently departed IVF pioneer Lesley Brown, Tammy Gonzalez has now been inducted into mommy history, benefiting future families who may find themselves at the other end of fetal oral teratoma — perhaps 20 years from now.

(photo: Jezper/ Shutterstock)

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