A 10 cm. tumor was successfully removed from a two-week-old baby in Ichilov Hospital, N12 reported on Wednesday.
According to N12, the tumor was discovered when the mother, Anat went for a scan at week 32 of the pregnancy. The doctors noticed that the circumference of the baby's torso was larger than average. Anat was immediately sent for further testing, and the tumor was discovered.
The doctors recommended the pregnancy continue as normal under observation until week 39, but a few days later, a cardiological test led the doctors to decide to act immediately and conduct a C-section.
Two weeks later, Prof. Igor Sochtonik, head of the pediatric oncology department at Ichilov Hospital, decided to remove the tumor, and the operation was successful, according to N12. The baby was sent back to the NICU. Within 10 days, the baby was home in full health.
"The baby was diagnosed before birth with a benign mertoma type tumor in the liver," Sochtonik told N12. "After the birth, we saw that there were many cysts on the tumor that were causing extra pressure in the baby's abdomen. We immediately understood that if we waited, the baby could reach a point where he couldn't breathe because of pressure in the diaphragm or from bleeding or bursting in the cysts, and we decided to do the challenging surgery."
He added that the job of anesthetizing the baby, which is particularly challenging with a baby of that age, was done by Dr. Yivgeni Izital and Dr. Dana Carol.
"We saw that the tumor was taking up most of the space on the right side of the liver and that it was 10 cm. long, which is enormous in a two-week-old baby, so we had to cut the right side of the liver to remove the entire tumor," said Prof. Nir Lovski and Dr. Goikman, two doctors that helped remove the tumor. "The surgery took five hours, and when it was over a sigh of relief and professional satisfaction was heard in the operating room."
Anat shared with N12 that she chose to name the baby Lavi (lion in Hebrew) because "not every two-week-old baby would handle this so bravely."
She added that the medical staff who took care of Lavi were just as brave and wonderful as him.
"Thank you to the surgical, anesthesiology, high-risk pregnancy and NICU staffs in Ichilov, you were like one big family to us," she said.