This December, parents Oleksii and Iryna are celebrating their baby girl Jolie’s first birthday and one year since her life-saving surgery at Monash Health.
As reported by SBS World News, at only 20 weeks’ gestation, during a routine prenatal ultrasound, doctors discovered a large mass growing on Jolie’s tailbone, which continued to grow at a rapid pace while she was in the womb.
The condition is so rare that it occurs only once in every 27,000 pregnancies.
‘The tumour was about one third of her body size and it was now getting bigger than the head. And the head is meant to be the biggest part that needs to be delivered. But instead, we have this tumour. The concern is whether the tumour might rupture during delivery,’ said Dr Amiria Lynch, Director of Paediatric Surgery at Monash Children’s Hospital.
Tumour rupture during delivery can be catastrophic, and a complex plan was developed by the multidisciplinary team at Monash Health, for a safe arrival for baby and mum.
Specialists removed 600 millilitres of fluid from Jolie’s biggest cyst just prior to her delivery by caesarean at 38 weeks. Three-days-later she would undergo 4 hours of surgery to remove the tumour.
The surgery was a huge success. Jolie recovered well from the procedure and was able to be discharged just 8 days later. Now, at one year old, she is happy and thriving.
‘[Jolie] is moving well and can lift her legs to try to walk. We are so happy. Before our baby we were just couple, a wife and husband. Now we are also parents. We are so happy, and she is so beautiful,’ said dad Oleksii and mum Iryna from Ukraine.
Monash Health’s model of care meant that Iryna and Jolie had the same team throughout their medical journey and stayed together as a family, receiving care at Monash Medical Centre and adjoining Monash Children’s Hospital.
‘We are so appreciative to all staff, especially of course to our doctor Amiria Lynch, she is an amazing person and an amazing doctor of surgery. And after that day, I think she became our family,’ said dad Oleksii.