Doctors saw something coming out of the baby’s neck; ‘when they find out what it was, it left them speechless’! 

According to the experts, taking care of yourself is the best way to take care of your babies.  Most twin or multiple pregnancies are discovered during an ultrasound. During this exam, sound waves are used to create images of your babies. Sometimes a seemingly normal twin pregnancy is later found to have only one baby. This unfortunate mother was three months pregnant with twin girls, an obstetrician noticed something unusual on one of the baby girl’s neck during an ultrasound.

It turned out to be a teratoma tumor, which is not cancerous but is fast growing and could potentially press on the baby’s airway, making it difficult —and potentially impossible — for her to breathe once she was born. The complication could have also affected Jenessa’s twin sister’s health since the two shared a placenta. After the baby in the womb was diagnosed with a tumor nearly as large as its head, the only way doctors thought they could remove it was to half-deliver the child and operate. But there was another complication: the baby is a twin.

A tumor growing on baby Jenessa’s neck stemming from her thyroid was blocking her airway. As it grew, doctors monitored her health and her sister’s health. At 29 weeks, the giant mass was causing too much fluid build up, compromising Theodora’s pregnancy. The twins, Jenessa and her twin sister Genesis, entered the world through what’s called an “exit” procedure. It took a team of 40 to safely deliver the twins. Anesthesiologists, heart doctors and fetal medicine specialists all played a role in the procedure so rare its only the second of its kind noted in medical literature.

Jenessa immediately went from the delivery room to the operating room, where her giant tumor was removed. Then Genesis was delivered. For months, the twins stayed in the NICU in side-by-side but separate rooms. As Genesis grew stronger, Jenessa struggled. While Jenessa headed home with a tracheostomy tube and gastronomy tube, her medical team believes she will one day be strong enough to get rid of both, according to the hospital’s blog.