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During Margaret Boemer’s 16-week, routine ultrasound, she was told that her pregnancy and her daughter’s development were no longer progressing normally.
After reviewing the scan, the doctor told her “there was something seriously wrong with our baby and that she had a sacrococcygeal teratoma.”
Boemer’s daughter had begun developing a tumor on her tailbone that was beginning to compete with her for nutrients and blood. The tumor only occurs once in every 35,000 births and affects girls more than boys.
It wasn’t the first time Boemer had received bad news regarding her pregnancy. She’d originally been pregnant with twins, but had lost the second baby before she even reached her second trimester.
Now, Boemer was trying to wrap her head around the fact that there was a chance her remaining daughter wouldn’t survive if the tumor leeched too much of the blood flow, causing the baby’s heart to fail.
The Boemer family didn’t have many options for treatment. They could either terminate the pregnancy, or attempt an incredibly risky fetal surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible.
Both mother and father wanted to give their daughter at least a chance to live, so they opted for surgery.
When Boemer was 23 weeks pregnant, she underwent emergency fetal surgery. Her unborn daughter, LynLee, was completely removed from her uterus and suspended in the air as surgeons removed 90% of the tumor.
It was a precarious process, during which LynLee’s heartrate dropped to a very low rate, but the procedure was successful.
Boemer had to spend the remainder of her pregnancy on bedrest, but managed to carry LynLee out to nearly full term and gave birth to her daughter – for a second time – via C-section. Just weeks later – after LynLee spent a few days in the NICU and underwent another surgery to remove the remaining 10% of the tumor – the Boemer family was able to reunite at home.
LynLee Boemer is now four months old, and her family could not be happier to finally be together.
