A baby boy from England came into the world in a very unusual way after a routine scan found an orange-sized growth on his neck, the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph reported.
Due to the size of the tumor, doctors decided to operate on little Arthur Fountain while he was still in the womb.
Surgeons cut into 38-year-old Michelle Fountain’s abdomen and delivered Arthur’s head and shoulders only so he could continue to receive oxygen from the placenta. This gave doctors time to get a tube into his throat to help him breathe.
"If we had delivered Arthur normally or by a Caesarean section, it would have been very likely that he would have died immediately," Dr. Saurabh Gandhi, an obstetric consultant and specialist in fetal maternal medicine at the Jessop Hospital in Sheffield, England told the newspaper.
After doctors stabilized Arthur, he was delivered and immediately underwent a four-hour operation to remove the tumor. After the surgery, he spent several weeks on a ventilator in the ICU.
He still has a breathing tube, but it should be taken out before his first birthday, according to the report.
"Every day I look at him and can't believe we've come home with him,” his mom said.
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