An expectant mother in Chicago said she would do whatever it
took to bring her girls safely into the world after she learned that a mass was
growing on one of her unborn babies' necks, putting both her and her twin
sister’s health in potential jeopardy.
Although the mass was determined to be a teratoma tumor,
which is not cancerous, it was restricting baby Jenessa’s airway and causing
fluid buildup in the womb, while also putting potential stress on their shared
placenta.
But doctors at The Chicago Institute for Fetal Health at Ann
& Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago miraculously were able to
partially deliver Jenessa through an ex utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) at
29 weeks gestation to place a breathing tube in her airway and IV in her hand,
all while her twin sister, Genesis, remained unaffected in her mother’s womb,
according to the hospital’s blog.
“We brought the upper torso, the neck and the arms out to be
able to get access to the airway, the windpipe, as well as to the hands, and to
be able to put an IV in and to monitor the baby’s oxygenation and heart rate,”
Dr. Aimen Shaaban, who led the 40-person team, told WGN9.
Throughout the procedure, Janessa’s umbilical cord remained
attached, until the pre-surgical prep was complete and doctors delivered her
completely.
She was then immediately whisked from the delivery room to
the operating room where they removed the mass, which had grown to nearly the
same size as her head. Genesis, who was being monitored carefully while
surgeons worked on her sister, was born immediately after Jenessa’s birth. Both
girls spent several months separated in the NICU, with Genesis first getting
released in March, and mom Theodora Flores finally able to pack up Jenessa’s
room this past Thursday.
“I’m so happy for her,” Shaaban, said, according to the
hospital’s blog. “She told us the most important thing is that she takes home
the babies that God gave her. And she has.”
While Jenessa headed home with a tracheostomy tube and
gastronomy tube, her medical team believes she will one day be strong enough to
get rid of both, according to the hospital’s blog.
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