Susan Aguirre and Aniah Carrazana
Susan Aguirre, 37, had one goal – to give her two-year-old daughter a sibling to grow up with. She was weary about getting pregnant again, but jumped into the process since her first pregnancy went so well. During her 10-week ultrasound, however, her joy quickly turned to worry.
Anna Sfakianaki, MD, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at The Women’s Hospital at Jackson Memorial, discovered a tumor growing on the baby’s spine. She suspected it could be spina bifida, a birth defect where the spine fails to develop properly. This meant Aguirre’s baby might be born with physical and intellectual disabilities.
After the discovery, she was referred to Rodrigo Ruano, MD, PhD, director of the UHealth Jackson Fetal Care Center and division chief of UHealth Jackson Maternal-Fetal Medicine, who ruled out spina bifida, but confirmed a rare tumor on the baby’s tailbone called a sacrococcygeal teratoma.
Dr. Ruano gave Aguirre and her family the option to do in utero surgery to remove the tumor, laser the vessel that was feeding the tumor in order to stop its growth, or closely monitor the fetal cardiac function with fetal echocardiograms (echo) and ultrasound exams. They decided to monitor the baby closely and plan a delivery via Cesarean section at 30 weeks.
At 28 weeks, the fetal echo showed the baby’s right heart ventricle was beating harder than the left ventricle. Dr. Ruano and the pediatric surgery and NICU teams decided to change the plan from elective C-section to ex-utero intrapartum treatment (EXIT) surgery in order to minimize potential trauma to the tumor.
On September 26, 2023, Anaiah Carrazana was born and safely transferred to the NICU without rupturing the tumor.
“Honestly, I feel like God did his work through Dr. Ruano. He was so amazing and not only was wonderful because he saved my baby’s life, but he also gave me confidence and comfort the entire way through,” Aguirre said.
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