Ashley Manderle, of Waupun, was at her 16-week ultrasound appointment when doctors discovered a mass on the left side of her baby’s neck. Over the next four weeks, doctors monitored the tumor. It nearly doubled in size, and doctors began to worry it would get so large, the baby’s airway would be completely cut off. They decided to deliver at 32 weeks.
Little Layla was partially delivered using an EXIT (Ex Utero Intrapartum Treatment) procedure. It’s similar to a C-section, but the baby stays attached to its mother. Dr. Inna Lobeck, pediatric and fetal surgeon, says they delivered her head, the mass, and one arm. The rest of Layla’s body remained inside. This allowed them to insert a breathing tube into baby’s airway before they fully removed her from the mother’s uterus. The team had just 30 minutes to complete the procedure before the placental support would run out and the baby would need to be fully delivered. The process took a total of 12 minutes.
IMAGE VIA UW Health Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center
“If you can imagine if she was born without an EXIT, 12 minutes is a long time, so she would be very high risk of cerebral palsy, neurodevelopmental delay, or very likely death, because you can’t go 12 minutes without an airway,” Dr. Lobeck said.
The mass was 17 cm big, which was bigger than the baby’s head. She had to be laid on her belly or side as she waited for surgery to make sure the tumor didn’t collapse her airway. Four days after she was born, doctors were able to successfully cut out the tumor.
Layla’s tumor was called a teratoma, which is a solid mass, and a very rare anomaly that can develop in pregnancy. It is usually benign, which means it is not cancerous, Lobeck said. Thankfully tests confirmed the tumor was not cancerous.
Ashley says Layla is doing great, and that there’s very little scarring.
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