February 11, 2009 2:50 PM
- Text
The Girl Who Was "Born" Twice
(CBS)
At four weeks old, Macie McCartney has already had two birthdays.
That's remarkable, considering there was a time her parents feared she'd never see even one, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports.
Four months into Keri McCartney's pregnancy, doctors spotted a tumor growing on the baby's tailbone - a rare and, in Macie's case, fatal condition striking one in 35,000 babies.
"At that point we didn't know - we didn't know what was going to happen," Keri said. "We just felt all alone, who will take us, who will help us through this."
The McCartneys found Texas Children's Fetal Center on the Internet - one of only a handful of hospitals in the world performing prenatal surgery.
The tumor was stealing blood from Macie, weakening her heart. So, at 25 weeks, surgeons cut into Keri's abdomen, pulled out the entire uterus -- and then half of Macie. The tumor was the size of a grapefruit.
"I felt like, 'whoa, this is huge,'" a surgeon said. "I mean, my hands are big and that tumor filled my hand."
Surgeons carefully cut away the non-cancerous tumor, monitoring Macie's heart and pumping saline into the womb where the other half of her body was tucked inside.
"We don't bring the whole baby out of the womb because we don't want the uterus to think the pregnancy is over and the baby's coming out," said Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye of Texas Children's Hospital.
Once free of the tumor, Macee was placed back in the womb, where she recovered and grew for a record 10 more weeks.
Aside from this scar on her backside, Macie is a strong newborn with a healthy future.
"We definitely had hope, but at the same time there's those times things don't go your way and God has other plans," Keri said.
Which is why "Hope" is Macie's middle name - given to her the first time she was born. Now, 14 weeks later, she's finally going home to Laredo Saturday.
That's remarkable, considering there was a time her parents feared she'd never see even one, CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports.
Four months into Keri McCartney's pregnancy, doctors spotted a tumor growing on the baby's tailbone - a rare and, in Macie's case, fatal condition striking one in 35,000 babies.
"At that point we didn't know - we didn't know what was going to happen," Keri said. "We just felt all alone, who will take us, who will help us through this."
The McCartneys found Texas Children's Fetal Center on the Internet - one of only a handful of hospitals in the world performing prenatal surgery.
The tumor was stealing blood from Macie, weakening her heart. So, at 25 weeks, surgeons cut into Keri's abdomen, pulled out the entire uterus -- and then half of Macie. The tumor was the size of a grapefruit.
"I felt like, 'whoa, this is huge,'" a surgeon said. "I mean, my hands are big and that tumor filled my hand."
Surgeons carefully cut away the non-cancerous tumor, monitoring Macie's heart and pumping saline into the womb where the other half of her body was tucked inside.
"We don't bring the whole baby out of the womb because we don't want the uterus to think the pregnancy is over and the baby's coming out," said Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye of Texas Children's Hospital.
Once free of the tumor, Macee was placed back in the womb, where she recovered and grew for a record 10 more weeks.
Aside from this scar on her backside, Macie is a strong newborn with a healthy future.
"We definitely had hope, but at the same time there's those times things don't go your way and God has other plans," Keri said.
Which is why "Hope" is Macie's middle name - given to her the first time she was born. Now, 14 weeks later, she's finally going home to Laredo Saturday.
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