Surgeons removed tumour from mouth of unborn baby

Doctors in Miami have performed the first surgery to remove a tumour from an unborn baby’s mouth.

Tammy Gonzalez was 17 weeks’ pregnant when an ultrasound of her daughter seemed to show the baby blowing a large bubble. It was a large tumour.

Tammy was told she had two options: terminate the pregnancy or wait for the baby to grow to be corrected but risk a rapid rate of growth of the tumour which could result in fatal bleeding.

Doctors said the baby likely wouldn’t survive without surgery in utero. University of Miami doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital completely removed the peach-sized tumour in a May 2010 operation. Leyna Gonzalez was born in Oct 2010.

At a hospital news conference this week, Tammy held her now 20-month-old daughter on her lap. Leyna has only a tiny scar on her mouth.

Doctors say Leyna’s tumour was so rare that it occurs in only one out of 100,000 pregnancies.

The surgery was performed using a laser.

The surgeons waited until now to formally announce news of the pioneering operation in a scientific journal before going public and beamed with pride.

“They are her saviours,” wept Tammy, 39. “She wouldn’t be here without them,” added Gonzalez, who also has a seven-year-old son with husband Alain, 38.

She told how at 17 weeks’ gestation an ultrasound showed that the foetus had taken on a peculiar appearance.

“You can imagine what goes through your head. ‘What is this?’ Nobody could really give me an answer because it’s so rare,” said Gonzalez.

She later learnt the condition was a rare foetal oral teratoma.

“If she was ultimately delivered alive, there was no guarantee that she would be normal, she’d have a tracheotomy, numerous surgeries, she’d have deformities,” said Gonzalez.

“I thought: ‘There has to be a way to save her.’ We started doing research, a lot of heartache and emotional distress.

“I asked my gynaecologist if there’s another way, if somebody could do surgery on her while she’s inside,” said Gonzalez.

In stepped Dr Ruben Quintero, a pioneer in foetal medicine at the University of Miami.

His wife, foetal surgeon Eftichia Kontopoulos, operated using an endoscope guided by an ultrasound.

Gonzalez was conscious during the operation and watching on a screen.

She said: “When they finally severed the whole tumour off and I saw it float away, it was like this huge weight had been lifted off me and I could finally see her face — and it was perfect.”