{"id":23761,"date":"2025-12-24T21:42:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T02:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/2025\/12\/24\/california-baby-born-after-rare-pregnancy\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:42:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T02:42:24","slug":"california-baby-born-after-rare-pregnancy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/2025\/12\/24\/california-baby-born-after-rare-pregnancy\/","title":{"rendered":"California Baby Born After Rare Pregnancy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction to a Rare Pregnancy<\/h2>\n

Suze Lopez holds her baby boy on her lap and marvels at the remarkable way he came into the world. Before little Ryu was born, he developed outside his mom\u2019s womb, hidden by a basketball-sized ovarian cyst \u2014 a dangerous situation so rare that his doctors plan to write about the case for a medical journal.<\/p>\n

The Rarity of the Pregnancy<\/h2>\n

Just 1 in 30,000 pregnancies occur in the abdomen instead of the uterus, and those that make it to full term \u201care essentially unheard of \u2013 far, far less than 1 in a million,\u201d said Dr. John Ozimek, medical director of labor and delivery at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles where Ryu was born. \u201cI mean, this is really insane.\u201d Lopez, a 41-year-old nurse who lives in Bakersfield, California, didn\u2019t know she was pregnant with her second child until days before giving birth.<\/p>\n

Unaware of the Pregnancy<\/h3>\n

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. Lopez experienced none of the usual pregnancy symptoms, such as morning sickness, and never felt kicks. Though she didn\u2019t have a period, her cycle is irregular and she sometimes goes years without one.<\/p>\n

The Discovery<\/h3>\n

For months, she and her husband Andrew Lopez went about their lives and traveled abroad. 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.
\n
\nLopez shared the news with her husband at a Dodgers baseball game in August, handing him a package with a note and a onesie.<\/p>\n

The Medical Emergency<\/h3>\n

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 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. \u201cIt did not look like it was directly invading any organs,\u201d Ozimek said. \u201cIt 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ectopic Pregnancies<\/h4>\n

Dr. Cara Heuser, a maternal-fetal specialist in Utah not involved with the case, said almost all pregnancies that implant outside the uterus \u2014 called ectopic pregnancies \u2014 go on to rupture and hemorrhage if not removed. Most commonly, they occur in the fallopian tubes. 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.<\/p>\n

The Successful Delivery<\/h2>\n

But Lopez and her son beat all the odds. 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. Doctors continually updated her husband about what was happening.<\/p>\n

A Miracle Recovery<\/h3>\n

\u201cThe whole time, I might have seemed calm on the outside, but I was doing nothing but praying on the inside,\u201d Andrew Lopez said. \u201cIt was just something that scared me half to death, knowing that at any point I could lose my wife or my child.\u201d Instead, they both recovered well. \u201cIt was really, really remarkable,\u201d Ozimek said. Since then, Ryu \u2014 named after a baseball player and a character in the Street Fighter video game series \u2014 has been healthy and thriving.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Lopez describes feeling blessed beyond measure with Ryu\u2019s first Christmas approaching. \u201cI do believe in miracles,\u201d she said, looking down at her baby. \u201cGod gave us this gift \u2014 the best gift ever.\u201d Ryu\u2019s birth is a testament to the rare and unpredictable nature of human pregnancy, and the dedication of medical professionals who work tirelessly to ensure the best outcomes for mothers and babies.<\/p>\n

FAQs<\/h2>\n