I've heard plenty of stories about pregnant women who needed to have emergency C-sections, but when I heard about Gemma Fletcher's incredible case? All I can say is wow -- just WOW. Gemma started having complications with her pregnancy at 32 weeks, and shockingly, doctors discovered a HUGE tumor on her kidney -- which actually weighed more than the baby girl she was carrying!
Doctors were worried about the tumor bursting, so she underwent an emergency Cesarean when she was 8 months pregnant. Gemma's daughter, Ava, weighed in at 6.4 pounds after delivery. And the tumor, yeah, that sucker tipped the scales at 7.5 pounds. (What are the odds?!)
Doctors think she had the benign tumor since birth, but her hormones during pregnancy caused it to grow. And it's a good thing that little Ava was delivered early, because it kept growing even more after she was born. OMG. Can you imagine if they'd waited any longer to deliver the baby? I mean, Gemma's delivery wasn't normal or easy, but it probably would've been much, much worse had that tumor gotten any larger.
She must've felt like she was carrying twins, and I can't even imagine her relief when her little girl came into the world safe and sound. Her jaw must have dropped when she found out her tumor was an entire pound larger than her baby! (I can't seem to get over that part.)
And I guess, in a way, baby Ava actually saved her mom's life, because the tumor may not have been discovered if Gemma hadn't been pregnant. Isn't it funny how things have a way of working out like that? Baby Ava is a true miracle -- in more ways than one.
Do you know anyone who found an unknown medical condition after becoming pregnant?
Image via Zorah Olivia/Flickr
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Comments 69
amazing
Glad mom and baby are ok.....
Wow. Thats amazing. Its almost a miracle that she got pregnant and had a c section so she was able to get that thing out of her. Thats so scary.
I personally dont know anyone that had an underlying medical condition that was brought out with pregnancy.
The hospital found an 11cm tumor on my left ovary when I went in for my first appointment while pregnant with my oldest. I had surgery when I was 16 weeks pregnant and had my son at 35 weeks and 6 days.
I had been misdianosed as a type 2 diabetic several years before I got pregnant and was treating type 2. When I got pregnant the hormones drive the system into overdrive and landed me in the er. Turned out I was actually type 1 and hadn't been treating it at all! If I hadn't gotten pregnant I don't know if they would have ever noticed.
When I was pregnant, at my 6 month ultrasound they thought I was having twins. I had a bad fall 2 months later and had to have a c-section and they discovered that I had a girl and a 3lb fibroid tumor!
I was working in a hospital as a medical lab tech and drew the blood of a woman that had had a tubal ligation and got pregnant and the baby grew outside the uterus. The placenta was attached on the top of the of the uterus. They did a C-section and hysterectomy and the premature baby survived. It is very rare that a woman gets pregnant after a tubal ligataion and even more rare that the baby will survive. It was around 1978 and they had ultrasound back then. The hospital had a really great high risk OB doctor.