I found out my baby had a tumor while pregnant - pioneering surgeons removed it while she was inside me

When Brailey and Louis Valenzuela learned they were expecting their second child, a baby girl, they were overjoyed. Mrs Valenzuela told Today.com that she was in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where doctors removed the tumor, for about two months until her daughter was born healthy and happy. Mrs Valenzuela said: ‘We were told multiple times the outlook is grim and if you don’t do something soon — in a matter of days — the baby could die.’ A cardiologist in Tennessee sent Mrs Valenzuela’s medical records to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where doctors often treat complicated and life-threatening pregnancies. Dr Jack Rychik, one of the doctors involved in Brailey Valenzuela’s surgery, said fetal tumors like this one are ‘quite rare.’ The tumor, if left unchecked, could grow so large that it crushes Arley's heart, which would kill her He said: ‘It is a tumor that is growing wildly because very very young cells … are misbehaving. ‘The concern about the pericardial teratoma is that it is growing rapidly and uncontrollably in a space that’s very confined.’ The doctors partially removed Arley from her mother’s womb by piercing the amniotic sac, but never birthed her completely, meaning she was never exposed to air and protected mainly by the fluid there.