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(KTLA) - A team of around 30 medical specialists huddled over a 41-year-old woman earlier this year in Los Angeles as they carefully delivered her nearly full-term baby, who had unknowingly developed behind a more than 20-pound ovarian cyst outside of her uterus, officials at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center announced.
The pregnancy came as a surprise to Suze Lopez, an emergency room nurse from Bakersfield, who only learned about it when she took a routine pregnancy test before surgery to remove the 22-pound benign cyst.
"Because of the large ovarian cyst that had been growing for years, it could have been a false positive, even ovarian cancer," Lopez said. "And I was used to very irregular periods and some abdominal discomfort. I could not believe that after 17 years of praying and trying for a second child, that I was actually pregnant."
At a Dodgers game three days later, she shared the surprise with her husband, Andrew Lopez, but the good news was dampened when she started having severe abdominal pain and ended up in the hospital.
Doctors worked to stabilize her dangerously high blood pressure, ordered blood work, an MRI and an ultrasound.
Medical Director of Labor and Delivery Dr. John Ozimek said he was shocked by the diagnosis.
"Suze was pregnant, but her uterus was empty, and a giant benign ovarian cyst weighing over 20 pounds was taking up so much space," Ozimek said. "We then discovered a nearly full-term baby boy in a small space in the abdomen, near the liver, with his butt resting on the uterus. A pregnancy this far outside the uterus that continues to develop is almost unheard of."
Ozimek added that as the baby developed, it pushed the cyst forward, making it appear that the tumor was getting larger, not that she was pregnant.
Abdominal ectopic pregnancies are rare, making up about 1% to 2% of all pregnancies and come with a high risk to the mother and fetus, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often on vital organs and blood vessels which can cause catastrophic maternal bleeding and fetal death.
"We had to figure out how to deliver the baby with a placenta and its blood vessels attached in the abdomen, remove the very large ovarian mass and do everything we could to save mom and this child," gynecological oncologist Dr. Michael Manuel said.
During the August 18 procedure, Manuel, who had been called in for the delicate operation, carefully lifted the 22-pound cyst out of the way so that Ozimek and the rest of the team could deliver Lopez's baby boy and rush him to the neonatal intensive care unit.
"As soon as the baby was delivered, Lopez started hemorrhaging badly. We were a specially trained team of obstetric anesthesiologists and well prepared, but it was still intense," said anesthesiologist Dr. Michael Sanchez. "I had already powered up a special machine that delivers blood products fast because every second matters."
While doctors worked to stabilize mom, little Ryu Jesse Lopez, as he was named, was under the care of Dr. Sara Dayanim, a neonatologist who said a critical concern was the child's lungs.
"We were very prepared to handle any lung problems the baby might have. But he came out of anesthesia pretty quickly and he was feisty," Dayanim said. "The following day, we were able to remove the breathing tube."
Somewhat miraculously, according to the experts at Cedars, Ryu, who was born weighing 8 pounds and with a full head of hair, had very few health problems.
Now, months later, Suze, Andrew, Ryu and their daughter Kaila, are all happy and healthy at home, ready to spend their first holiday season as a family of four, SFGATE reported.
"I appreciate every little thing. Everything," Suze Lopez said. "Every day is a gift and I'm never going to waste it."