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In Peru, a 19-year-old woman gave birth to a baby girl who was stuck to her mother’s liver in the womb. This very rare and dangerous condition is called hepatic ectopic pregnancy. Doctors have called it a ‘miracle’ and it is the fourth known case in the world in which both mother and child are safe.
Medical science has made continuous progress, but even today some cases come to light which surprise doctors. These rare incidents are both a challenge and an inspiration for the medical world. One such extremely rare miracle came to light recently, where a Peruvian woman surprised the doctors by giving birth to a healthy baby girl who was stuck to her liver instead of her uterus. The fertilized egg of the girl was attached to the mother’s liver instead of the uterus. This rare condition is called Hepatic Ectopic Pregnancy. Such pregnancy occurs when the fertilized egg gets implanted in the liver instead of the uterus. However, in this situation, the life of the child in the womb as well as that of the mother is at risk. But in this case both are absolutely safe.
Let us tell you that liver is an organ of the body which has abundant supply of blood. For this reason, this condition often causes severe internal bleeding, leading to a high risk of mortality for both mother and child. Doctors at the Cayetano Heredia National Hospital in San Martín de Porres, near Lima, Peru, called it a “miracle.” Health Minister Luis Queiroz Avilés confirmed that a highly complex surgery was performed to save the life of the 19-year-old mother and her newborn baby. The baby weighed 7.9 pounds (3.6 kg) and was completely healthy at birth. The minister said it was the first successful case of its kind in Peru and only the fourth in the world in which this rare condition was completely successful.
According to experts, ectopic pregnancy or ectopic pregnancy is one that occurs outside the uterus. About 96% of its cases occur in the fallopian tube. Only 4% of cases occur in the abdominal area. In this case, the fertilized egg, despite being in the abdominal region, was implanted directly into the liver and the embryo received nutrition through the arteries of the organ. What makes this case even more unique medically is that the baby completed 40 weeks of pregnancy. This is almost impossible to happen in a normal ectopic pregnancy and in the three previous successful cases, babies were born at 36 weeks, making this case a milestone in medical history. The woman gave birth to her daughter through Caesarean section at the Carlos Lanfranco La Hoz Hospital in Puente Piedra.
However, after the birth of the girl, the mother’s situation became complicated. She had to be immediately transferred to the Cayetano Heredia National Hospital for an extremely complex surgery, because the placenta could not be removed and there was a risk of excessive bleeding. To deal with this serious condition, embolization procedure of the mother was done. Interventional radiology was used in this procedure, in which special equipment was used to close the arteries that were supplying blood to the placenta. This step was necessary to control the bleeding and save the mother’s life. Expressing happiness over this extraordinary success, a Health Ministry spokesperson said, “The patient is now out of danger and is currently stable and is being prepared for discharge soon.” The spokesperson also said that the mother and the child went home safely on Wednesday (December 3).
