‘Miraculous Birth’ at Cedars-Sinai Delivers Family Holiday Joy

He wasn't supposed to be here. Experts say babies like Ryu Lopez don't usually make it this far. But this holiday season, the Lopez family is deeply grateful for beating incredible odds in what Cedars-Sinai physicians are calling a medical miracle.

Suze Lopez, a nurse from Bakersfield, California, was scheduled to finally have a 22-pound ovarian cyst removed; one that had been growing for years. But the results of a routine pregnancy test that was required before the surgery would give her the shock of a lifetime.

"Because of the large ovarian cyst that had been growing for years, it could have been a false positive, even ovarian cancer," Lopez said. "And I was used to very irregular periods and some abdominal discomfort. I could not believe that after 17 years of praying, and trying, for a second child, that I was actually pregnant."

Three days after finding out she was pregnant, the 41-year-old emergency room nurse shared the good news with her husband, Andrew, during a date night at a Dodgers baseball game in Los Angeles. But during the trip Lopez started having pain in her abdomen and they headed to Cedars-Sinai.

When they arrived at the medical center, Lopez had dangerously high blood pressure. John Ozimek, DO, medical director of Labor and Delivery, and his team got to work, stabilizing her blood pressure and ordering an MRI, blood work and an ultrasound.

Ozimek was stunned by what the diagnostic images revealed: a very rare abdominal ectopic pregnancy.

"Suze was pregnant, but her uterus was empty, and a giant benign ovarian cyst weighing over 20 pounds was taking up so much space," Ozimek said. "We then discovered a nearly full-term baby boy in a small space in the abdomen, near the liver, with his butt resting on the uterus. A pregnancy this far outside the uterus that continues to develop is almost unheard of."

Ozimek said that as the baby grew inside Lopez's abdomen, behind the mass, it pushed the very large cyst forward. "It makes sense that she just thought the tumor was getting bigger again, not that she could be pregnant."

What Is an Abdominal Ectopic Pregnancy?

In an abdominal ectopic pregnancy, the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often on vital organs or major blood vessels. The placenta cannot safely grow there, creating an exceptionally high risk of catastrophic maternal bleeding and fetal death. A surviving infant is extraordinarily rare and often faces severe medical complications.

"It was profound to see this full-term baby sitting behind a very large ovarian tumor, not in the uterus. In my entire career, I've never even heard of one making it this far into the pregnancy," said gynecological oncologist Michael Manuel, MD, of Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center, who was called in to remove the giant cyst.

"We had to figure out how to deliver the baby with a placenta and its blood vessels attached in the abdomen, remove the very large ovarian mass and do everything we could to save mom and this child," Manuel said.

Delivering a Medical Miracle

It took a team of about 30 experts to pull off a highly coordinated, complex delivery and surgery. Maternal-fetal medicine specialists, gynecological oncologists, nurses, anesthesiologists and a host of specially trained surgical technicians filled the operating room to near capacity.

Manuel lifted the massive dermoid cyst out of the way so Ozimek and team could quickly deliver the baby and hand him off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) staff. Then they got back to work.

"As soon as the baby was delivered, Lopez started hemorrhaging badly. We were a specially trained team of obstetric anesthesiologists and well prepared, but it was still intense," said anesthesiologist Michael Sanchez, MD. "I had already powered up a special machine that delivers blood products fast because every second matters. We used 11 units of blood."

Cedars-Sinai is the only Level IV Maternal Care hospitalin California, a designation earned for its ability to provide comprehensive care for mothers before birth, throughout labor and delivery and after childbirth.

"The ability to provide this level of highly trained, coordinated and multidisciplinary care for extremely high-risk patients can make a critical difference in the health of both mother and baby, as we saw in this extraordinary case of Suze and Ryu Lopez," said Sarah J. Kilpatrick, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The medical team was elated to see that after such a rare and dangerous pregnancy, the little boy the Lopezes named Ryu came into the world with very few health problems, a full head of hair and weighing 8 pounds.

Sara Dayanim, MD, a neonatologist with Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's, said a critical concern was whether his lungs had developed properly and if they would be functioning.

"We were very prepared to handle any lung problems the baby might have. But he came out of anesthesia pretty quickly and he was feisty," Dayanim said. "The following day we were able to remove the breathing tube, and over the course of his two weeks with us, Ryu quickly reached all of the important benchmarks for surviving well. He defied all the odds."

The Nurse Angel

Like her newborn, Lopez was feisty and focused on recovering quickly so she could spend time in the NICU with Ryu, her husband and teenage daughter, Kaila. She especially remembers Carmen Chavez, MSN, RN, assistant manager of the Maternal-Fetal Care Unit, for coming alongside her before and after the challenging delivery and surgery. Lopez still refers to as her guardian angel through it all.

"She checked on me so often," Lopez said. "She sat in on the consults with doctors to make sure we understood everything I was facing at a difficult time. She even helped us tell my daughter about the pregnancy. I'm a nurse myself, but what Carmen did was above and beyond. It meant everything."

Chavez said she felt Lopez deserved all the support she could get.

"This was an exceptionally high-risk case, and we had to plan every detail," Chavez said. "It was all hands on deck for our nursing team. Knowing the complexities of Suze's situation, knowing the challenges she and her baby were about to face, I wanted to stay close."

Ryu's parents believe he is the answer to years of praying for a second child. Andrew Lopez said that is why they chose "Jesse" for Ryu's middle name; it means "gift from God."

"He is our gift. And Ryu and Suze are my miracles," Lopez said. "They let me in the operating room, and it was tough to watch what she was going through, and amazing to see Ryu delivered. So yes, many prayers have been answered."

"I appreciate every little thing. Everything. Every day is a gift and I'm never going to waste it," Suze Lopez said. "God gave me this baby so that he could be an example to the world that God exists-that miracles, modern-day miracles, do happen."

Read more from the Cedars-Sinai Newsroom: Cedars-Sinai Earns Highest Designation for Maternal Care