Suze Lopez holds her baby boy on her lap, marveling at the astonishing way he entered the world.
A Rare Abdominal Pregnancy
Before Ryu was born, he developed outside his mother’s womb, hidden by a basketball-sized ovarian cyst-a situation so uncommon that doctors plan to write about the case for a medical journal.
The Unusual Statistics
Only 1 in 30,000 pregnancies occur in the abdomen instead of the uterus, and those that reach full term are “essentially unheard of – far, far less than 1 in a million,” said Dr. John Ozimek, medical director of labor and delivery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles where Ryu was born. “I mean, this is really insane.”
A Nurse’s Unexpected Journey
Lopez, a 41-year-old nurse who lives in Bakersfield, California, didn’t know she was pregnant with her second child until days before giving birth. When her belly began to grow earlier this year, she thought it was her ovarian cyst getting bigger. Doctors had been monitoring the mass since her 20s, leaving it in place after removing her right ovary and another cyst.
No Symptoms, No Signs
Lopez experienced none of the usual pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness, and never felt kicks. Though she didn’t have a period, her cycle is irregular and she sometimes goes years without one. For months, she and her husband Andrew Lopez went about their lives and traveled abroad.
Growing Pain and a Decision
But gradually, the pain and pressure in her abdomen got worse, and Lopez figured it was finally time to get the 22-pound cyst removed. She needed a CT scan, which required a pregnancy test first because of the radiation exposure. To her great surprise, the test came back positive.
A Baseball Game Revelation
Lopez shared the news with her husband at a Dodgers baseball game in August, handing him a package with a note and a onesie. “I just saw her face,” he recalled, “and she just looked like she wanted to weep and smile and cry at the same time.”
Hospital Arrival and Stabilization
Shortly after the game, Lopez began feeling unwell and sought help at Cedars-Sinai. It turned out she had dangerously high blood pressure, which the medical team stabilized. They also did blood work and gave her an ultrasound and an MRI.
The Astonishing Findings
The scans found 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. “It did not look like it was directly invading any organs,” Ozimek said. “It looked like it was mostly implanted on the sidewall of the pelvis, which is also very dangerous but more manageable than being implanted in the liver.”
Expert Insight on Ectopic Pregnancies
Dr. Cara Heuser, a maternal-fetal specialist in Utah not involved with the case, said almost all pregnancies that implant outside the uterus-called ectopic pregnancies-go on to rupture and hemorrhage if not removed. Most commonly, they occur in the fallopian tubes.
Lessons from a 2023 Study
A 2023 medical journal article by doctors in Ethiopia described another abdominal pregnancy in which mother and baby survived, pointing out that fetal mortality can be as high as 90% in such cases and birth defects are seen in about 1 in 5 surviving babies.
The Day of Delivery
On Aug. 18, a medical team delivered the 8-pound (3.6-kilogram) baby while she was under full anesthesia, removing the cyst during the same surgery. She lost nearly all of her blood, Ozimek said, but the team got the bleeding under control and gave her transfusions.
Husband’s Perspective
Doctors continually updated her husband about what was happening. “The whole time, I might have seemed calm on the outside, but I was doing nothing but praying on the inside,” Andrew Lopez said. “It was just something that scared me half to death, knowing that at any point I could lose my wife or my child.”
Recovery and Remarkability
Instead, they both recovered well. “It was really, really remarkable,” Ozimek said. Since then, Ryu-named after a baseball player and a character in the Street Fighter video game series-has been healthy and thriving.
Family Joy
His parents love watching him interact with his 18-year-old sister, Kaila, and say he completes their family. With Ryu’s first Christmas approaching, Lopez describes feeling blessed beyond measure.
A Miracle in Their Eyes
“I do believe in miracles,” she said, looking down at her baby. “God gave us this gift – the best gift ever.”
Key Takeaways
- Ryu’s birth was the result of an abdominal pregnancy hidden by a massive ovarian cyst.
- The case is so rare that doctors plan to publish it in a medical journal.
- The family, guided by a skilled medical team, overcame significant risks to welcome a healthy baby.
The story reminds us that even the most extraordinary medical situations can lead to joyous outcomes when expertise and determination align.
