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posted by janrinok on Wednesday October 26 2016, @07:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the happy-birthdays-to-you dept.

A newborn has successfully undergone an operation to remove a sacrococcygeal teratoma tumor at 23 weeks, 5 days into the mother's pregnancy. The mother gave birth to the baby during week 35:

A baby girl from Lewisville, Texas, has been "born" twice after she was taken out of her mother's womb for 20 minutes for life-saving surgery.

At 16 weeks pregnant, Margaret Hawkins Boemer discovered her daughter, Lynlee Hope, had a tumour on her spine.

The mass, known as a sacrococcygeal teratoma, was diverting blood from the foetus - raising the risk of fatal heart failure.

[...] Doctor Darrell Cass of Texas Children's Fetal Centre was one of the team who carried out the surgery. He said the tumour had been so large that a "huge" incision was required to reach it, leaving the baby "hanging out in the air".

Lynlee's heart virtually stopped during the procedure but a heart specialist kept her alive while most of the tumour was removed, he added. The team then placed her back in her mother's womb and sewed her uterus up.

This isn't the first surgery of its kind:

"Baby Boemer is still an infant but is doing beautiful," said Cass, remarking that she is perfectly healthy. His one previous surgery of this kind was also a success. "I think she's about 7 now, and she sings karaoke to Taylor swift[sic] -- she's completely normal," said Cass.


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  • (Score: 1) by ewk on Wednesday October 26 2016, @12:32PM

    by ewk (5923) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @12:32PM (#418947)

    And like any adult with a known hereditary defect, she will be able to make an informed choice about children or not.
    If we would only allow people without genetic defect to live and procreate...

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    I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @12:59PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @12:59PM (#418952)

    > she will be able to make an informed choice

    Will she be shown photos of the lump of malformed body parts that was pretending to be her tail for a few months when she's older? And if she is shown that, will she volunteer to not fling her legs in the air after her prom date? Reversible sterilisation at birth is the best solution, IMHO. Then the "informed choice" is to explicitly un-sterilise herself, so no oopses happen.

    You're terribly terribly naive about humans young and old.

    • (Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday October 26 2016, @01:10PM

      by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @01:10PM (#418955)

      Forced sterilization has a long, sad history.

      I doubt any sterilization techniques effective at birth would be reversible.

    • (Score: 1) by ewk on Wednesday October 26 2016, @01:16PM

      by ewk (5923) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @01:16PM (#418958)

      Sure... let's just preventative sterilize everyone after birth. Just to prevent any 'oopses'.
      And you're calling me naive?? tsk, tsk....

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      I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @01:13PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 26 2016, @01:13PM (#418956)

    1) Not all cancers are hereditary, and my guess is that this one isn't as well.
    2) There is no such thing as "without genetic defects", even after selection "defects" might develop at later age (e.g. skin cancer due to UV exposure or lung cancer due to smoking). And good luck defining what would be considered a "genetic defect". A "genetic defect" (or closely related trait) could be beneficial to a subpopulation in the future. If you could remove those defects you might even put the whole human population on jeopardy. No "genetic defects" would mean reducing the fitness of a population.

    • (Score: 1) by ewk on Wednesday October 26 2016, @01:24PM

      by ewk (5923) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @01:24PM (#418961)

      So... all the more reason to not interfere too much in life finding it's way...
      Good to see that some ACs actually do think :-)

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      I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews
      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday October 26 2016, @05:30PM

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @05:30PM (#419063) Journal

        Be sure to tell your doctor about your opinion on not-treating treatable diseases. I assume you're a Christian Scientist 'cause there's no way you could be a massive hypocrite on the internet. That never happens.

        • (Score: 1) by ewk on Wednesday October 26 2016, @06:18PM

          by ewk (5923) on Wednesday October 26 2016, @06:18PM (#419081)

          Once you assume you're making an 'ass' out of mostly 'u' and a bit of 'me'... :-)

          Not burdened by any religion or religious upbringing, I am all in favour of treating what can be treated, hence the phrase 'too much' in my previous comment in this thread.

          Next time please engage your brain before you start to type.
          Thank you for your cooperation.

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          I don't always react, but when I do, I do it on SoylentNews