In UK, a baby was born 'twice'. 9 years ago, another baby entered the world two times

In an unbelievable medical marvel, a baby was born twice in the United Kingdom. Lucy Isaac, a teacher from Oxford, learned that she had ovarian cancer around the fifth week of her pregnancy. The doctors felt that waiting until after the delivery would complicate the case and so proposed doing the surgery in the 20th week. Surgeons temporarily removed her womb, containing her son, and put it back after the five-hour procedure. The baby was safely delivered full term in January.

Delivering a baby twice to treat a medical condition has happened on a few occasions before. The last time a baby was removed from the mother's body and put back was in 2016. A baby girl from Lewisville, Texas, was removed from the mother's body to treat a tumour on her spine.

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Margaret Hawkins Boemer was 16 weeks pregnant when she learned that her daughter, Lynlee Hope, had a tumour on her spine. It was hampering blood flow to the baby and putting her at risk of heart failure. Doctors advised her to terminate the pregnancy before she was told about the surgery by Texas Children's Fetal Centre.

Tumour was the same size as the foetus

Baby Lynlee weighed just 0.53kg at the time she was removed from her mother's body for the first time. The tumour was also about the same size, and the baby was given a 50 per cent chance of survival.

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A large incision had to be made to reach the tumour. This was not possible while Lynlee was still inside the womb, and so she was removed. While the doctors performed surgery to remove the tumour, her heart almost stopped beating. But a specialist kept it going till a major portion of the tumour was removed. The doctors then put her back in the womb and closed the uterus.

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Boemer was on bed rest for the remaining pregnancy and gave birth to Lynlee for a second time in June. At eight days old, the rest of the tumour was removed from her tailbone.

Baby born twice in the UK

Lucy Isaac learned about ovarian cancer after a routine ultrasound. Doctors did not want to risk delaying the surgery. However, the standard keyhole surgery was not an option because of the advanced stage of the pregnancy. They looked at other options. A team led by Dr Soleymani Majd at the John Radcliffe Hospital proposed a rare and complex surgery.

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This involved keeping the baby in the womb but outside the mother's body while the cancer was treated. Rafferty Isaac was safely encased inside Lucy's womb while the womb itself was removed from her body. Majd and 15 other doctors were in the room to ensure the safety of the mother and the baby. They ensure that the womb remains connected to vital blood vessels and tissues so Rafferty doesn't suffer any untoward consequences.

Lucy's womb was wrapped in a warm saline pack to maintain a safe temperature as two doctors monitored it. The saline pack was changed every 20 minutes to maintain the right temperature for the two hours it was outside. After the surgery, the womb was put back inside Lucy. Rafferty was delivered at full term, weighing 2.8 kg in January.