Doctors shocked to find baby growing in woman’s liver
Doctors shocked to find baby growing in woman's liver
December 17, 2021 2:58pm
Updated
Doctors found a fetus growing in a Canadian woman's liver in a rare phenomenon called an ectopic pregnancy.
It’s not what to expect while you’re expecting.
A Canadian woman survived an extraordinary and dangerous ordeal after doctors discovered a fetus was growing in her liver, in a rare form of ectopic pregnancy. The prenatal peculiarity was first described in a 2012 case report but recently came to light via a TikTok video, which currently boasts 5.7 million views.
“I thought I had seen it all,” pediatrician Dr. Michael Narvey admitted in the clip of the embryonic anomaly, which began after the 33-year-old patient reported to the clinic after experiencing menstrual bleeding for 14 days straight. It had also reportedly been a staggering “49 days since her last menstrual period,” according to Narvey.
A subsequent sonogram revealed the stunning source of her symptoms: “What they find in the liver is this: a baby,” Narvey explained, pointing to a screenshot of the fetus.
Specifically, the woman had an extremely rare version of an ectopic pregnancy, in which “a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Aside from having a human growing where it shouldn’t, symptoms of the condition include vaginal bleeding and pelvic and abdomen pain, which generally increase as the unborn child grows.
In a follow-up video, Dr. Narvey described how in a normal ectopic pregnancy, the fertilized egg “winds up getting stuck” in the fallopian tube, but, in rare instances, can depart the ova pass and embed itself in the abdominal wall.
However, this patient’s case was rarer still as the embryo had “wound up traveling up to the liver where they implanted,” explained the astonished physician.
"We see these sometimes in the abdomen but never in the liver,” said the Narvey, who works for the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. “This is a first for me.”
Unfortunately, the medical marvel can prove dangerous for both mothers and fetuses as the embryo is rarely able to develop properly outside the uterus. Indeed, while physicians managed to save the patient’s life, they could not rescue her unborn child, per the original case report
The probability of a baby forming in one’s booze processor is still unclear, however, the same study states that 14 hepatic pregnancies, referring to the liver, have been reported worldwide in the 35 years preceding Nov. 1999.
The medical journal described another instance of a 25-year-old woman who was found to have a live 18-week-old fetus attached to her liver. She tragically died of uncontrollable bleeding following the embryo’s extraction.
Doctors shocked to find baby growing in woman's liver
December 17, 2021 2:58pm
Updated
Doctors found a fetus growing in a Canadian woman's liver in a rare phenomenon called an ectopic pregnancy.
It’s not what to expect while you’re expecting.
A Canadian woman survived an extraordinary and dangerous ordeal after doctors discovered a fetus was growing in her liver, in a rare form of ectopic pregnancy. The prenatal peculiarity was first described in a 2012 case report but recently came to light via a TikTok video, which currently boasts 5.7 million views.
“I thought I had seen it all,” pediatrician Dr. Michael Narvey admitted in the clip of the embryonic anomaly, which began after the 33-year-old patient reported to the clinic after experiencing menstrual bleeding for 14 days straight. It had also reportedly been a staggering “49 days since her last menstrual period,” according to Narvey.
A subsequent sonogram revealed the stunning source of her symptoms: “What they find in the liver is this: a baby,” Narvey explained, pointing to a screenshot of the fetus.
Specifically, the woman had an extremely rare version of an ectopic pregnancy, in which “a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Aside from having a human growing where it shouldn’t, symptoms of the condition include vaginal bleeding and pelvic and abdomen pain, which generally increase as the unborn child grows.
In a follow-up video, Dr. Narvey described how in a normal ectopic pregnancy, the fertilized egg “winds up getting stuck” in the fallopian tube, but, in rare instances, can depart the ova pass and embed itself in the abdominal wall.
However, this patient’s case was rarer still as the embryo had “wound up traveling up to the liver where they implanted,” explained the astonished physician.
"We see these sometimes in the abdomen but never in the liver,” said the Narvey, who works for the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. “This is a first for me.”
Unfortunately, the medical marvel can prove dangerous for both mothers and fetuses as the embryo is rarely able to develop properly outside the uterus. Indeed, while physicians managed to save the patient’s life, they could not rescue her unborn child, per the original case report
The probability of a baby forming in one’s booze processor is still unclear, however, the same study states that 14 hepatic pregnancies, referring to the liver, have been reported worldwide in the 35 years preceding Nov. 1999.
The medical journal described another instance of a 25-year-old woman who was found to have a live 18-week-old fetus attached to her liver. She tragically died of uncontrollable bleeding following the embryo’s extraction.
