A 41-year-old nurse in Bakersfield, California, surprised the medical world when she delivered a healthy baby after a rare abdominal pregnancy hidden behind a 22-lb ovarian cyst.
The Rare Condition
The case is so uncommon that Dr. John Ozimek, medical director of labor and delivery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, said it is “really insane.” He explained that only 1 in 30,000 pregnancies occur in the abdomen, and those that reach full term are “essentially unheard of – far, far less than 1 in a million.”
The Mother and the Discovery
Suze Lopez, a 41-year-old nurse, had been monitoring a large ovarian cyst since her 20s after the removal of her right ovary and another cyst. She did not notice any typical pregnancy symptoms-no morning sickness, no fetal kicks, and an irregular cycle that sometimes skipped years. Only when her belly began to swell earlier in the year did she suspect the cyst was enlarging. The cyst weighed 22 pounds.
After traveling abroad with her husband Andrew for months, the pain and pressure in her abdomen worsened. She scheduled a CT scan, which required a pregnancy test because of the radiation exposure. To her surprise, the test came back positive.
The Diagnosis
Lopez shared the news with Andrew during a Dodgers baseball game in August, handing him a package with a note and a onesie. “I just saw her face,” Andrew recalled, “and she just looked like she wanted to weep and smile and cry at the same time.”
Shortly after the game, Lopez felt unwell and went to Cedars-Sinai. She was found to have dangerously high blood pressure, which the team stabilized. Blood work, an ultrasound, and an MRI revealed that her uterus was empty, but a nearly full-term fetus in an amniotic sac was hiding in a small space in her abdomen near her liver.
Dr. Ozimek noted that the fetus “did not look like it was directly invading any organs” and was “mostly implanted on the sidewall of the pelvis, which is also very dangerous but more manageable than being implanted in the liver.”
The Delivery
On August 18, a surgical team delivered the 8-pound (3.6-kilogram) baby while Lopez was under full anesthesia. The cyst was removed during the same surgery. Lopez lost nearly all of her blood, but the team controlled the bleeding and gave her transfusions.
“The whole time, I might have seemed calm on the outside, but I was doing nothing but praying on the inside,” Andrew said. “It was just something that scared me half to death, knowing that at any point I could lose my wife or my child.”
Dr. Ozimek reflected on the operation: “It was really, really remarkable.”
The Aftermath
Since the delivery, Ryu-named after a baseball player and a character in the Street Fighter video game series-has been healthy and thriving. He interacts with his 18-year-old sister Kaila, and his parents say he completes their family.
With Ryu’s first Christmas approaching, Lopez describes feeling blessed beyond measure. “I do believe in miracles,” she said, looking down at her baby. “God gave us this gift – the best gift ever.”
Key Takeaways
- A 41-year-old nurse gave birth to a healthy baby after a rare abdominal pregnancy hidden behind a 22-lb ovarian cyst.
- The fetus was nearly full term and was implanted on the sidewall of the pelvis, a dangerous but manageable location.
- The surgical team delivered an 8-pound baby and removed the cyst while controlling significant blood loss.
The case highlights the extraordinary possibilities of modern medicine and the resilience of families facing unimaginable challenges.
