A baby born with a huge tumour weighing almost half of her total body weight is doing “amazing” following surgery.
Following her 20-week scan, mum Kristin Tyler was “terrified” when doctors told her that her baby had a sacrococcygeal teratoma (SCT) – a tumour that develops before birth and grows from the tailbone.
Upon giving birth to little Adalida in May, she and husband Jacob found out the extent of the tumour, which weighed 4lbs and was 16cm in size.
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Thankfully, following surgery two days after she was born to successfully remove it, the tot was able to go home several weeks later, and is now thriving.
“She’s doing great and meeting all her milestones,” Kristin, a stay at home mum from Alexander, Lousiana, US, told Need To Know.
When she and 25-year-old Jacob, a mechanic, saw the growth during a scan in February, she says doctors believed it to be spina bifida.
But a day later, they learned the truth.
Kristin said: “We were terrified.
“We had never heard of an SCT before.
“We kept looking up the diagnosis and calling our friends and family trying to find information and comfort.
“We immediately started praying in hopes god would save our sweet baby girl.
“We were scared and felt lost.”
When her daughter was born via C-section on 21 May weighing 10lbs, she was immediately rushed away by doctors.
Kristin recalled: “I only got to see Adalida for a split second on a TV-type screen they had in the operating room before she was brought to the NICU.
“My husband came to me saying how beautiful she was and how god saved our baby girl during delivery.
“I didn’t get to see her until hours later but when I did she was covered in wires, tubes, and her teratoma was wrapped, but she was still our beautiful baby.”
Doctors knew they would need to act fast, and the tot underwent surgery two days later.
Luckily, she has been recovering well and was allowed to go home on 29 June – her due date.
Since then, she has been going from strength to strength.
Kristin added: “She is a happy, healthy baby.
“She will need future surgeries, but she is doing amazing.”
