California woman delivers healthy baby after ‘essentially unheard of’ ectopic pregnancy | California

A California family celebrates their first vacation after giving birth to their last child, a baby who grew outside of his mother’s womb.

Suze Lopez, a 41-year-old emergency room nurse in Bakersfield, California, surgically delivered baby Ryu in August, so the newborn is celebrating his first Christmas. He had had an ectopic pregnancy – when a fertilized egg implants and develops 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 plan to document the case in medical journals.

Dr. John Ozimek, who oversees the hospital’s labor and delivery unit, noted that out-of-utero pregnancies that reach term “are essentially unheard of — far, far less than one in a million,” he told The Associated Press. “I mean, it’s really insane,” he added.

Lopez found out she was pregnant just days before giving birth. Since her twenties, she suffered from ovarian cysts. She had already had her right ovary removed along with another cyst.

For months, doctors had been monitoring a 22-pound cyst on Lopez’s abdomen. After dealing with increasing abdominal pain and pressure, Lopez consulted doctors to see how to have them removed. But during her appointment, after taking a routine pregnancy test, Lopez discovered she was pregnant.

Despite the positive test, Lopez noted no pregnancy symptoms. “Due to the large ovarian cyst that had been growing for years, it could have been a false positive or even ovarian cancer,” Lopez said in a Cedars-Sinai news release. “And I was used to very irregular periods and abdominal pain. I couldn’t believe that after 17 years of praying and trying, for a second child, I was actually pregnant.”

But days later, Lopez returned to the hospital with abdominal pain and dangerously high blood pressure. Doctors discovered that although Lopez’s uterus was empty, a fetus was hidden in her abdomen.

Baby Ryu was delivered on August 18, and the team of 30 doctors also removed 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 Cedars-Sinai spokesperson confirmed that Lopez and baby Ryu are in good health: “The family is doing very well. Mom and baby [are] everything prospers.

The Guardian was unable to 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.”