Good news deserves headlines too.
In 2016, Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, a Nigerian-born pediatric surgeon, helped perform a rare fetal surgery that gave one baby girl a chance at life before she was even born.
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KSL reports that Margaret Boemer was 16 weeks pregnant when doctors discovered that her daughter, LynLee Hope, had a sacrococcygeal teratoma, a tumor that develops before birth near the tailbone. The tumor was stealing LynLee’s blood supply and putting her tiny heart under dangerous stress.
According to Texas Children’s Hospital, doctors feared LynLee would not survive without surgery. At 23 weeks, the surgical team carefully opened Boemer’s uterus, pulled LynLee partially out of the womb, removed about 90% of the tumor, then placed her back inside so she could continue growing.
KSL reports that Dr. Darrell Cass and Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye operated for about five hours, with the actual procedure on LynLee taking around 20 minutes. After the surgery, Boemer remained on bed rest for 12 weeks before LynLee was born by C-section at nearly 36 weeks.
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LynLee still needed another surgery after birth to remove the remaining tumor, but she made it home with her family weeks later. Texas Children’s shared that her story became known as the story of the baby who was “born twice.”
It’s the kind of story that reminds us why Black medical excellence deserves to be seen. Behind the miracle was skill, faith, teamwork, and a doctor whose work helped make the impossible feel possible.
