Doctors saved these twin girls' lives with a highly unusual and risky procedure during their C-section delivery.
The odds were against Jenessa and Genesis when, on their 13-week scan, doctors spotted a teratoma, a benign but fast-growing tumor, on Jenessa's neck.
It threatened to suffocate Jenessa, and there was a risk Genesis would grow one too.
If they were delivered at term, in March, one or both of them would have been stillborn.
Worse, the pressure the tumor was putting on Jenessa meant that there was a risk she would die as soon as the umbilical cord was cut.
In a bid to save them both, a multi-pronged surgical team at The Chicago Institute for Fetal Health and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago performed a delicate EXIT (ex utero intrapartum treatment) delivery at 29 weeks in December, followed by six months of in-hospital care before they could go home in June.
Chicago doctors spotted a teratoma, a benign but fast-growing tumor, on Jenessa's neck at her 13-week scan. By the time she was born at 29 weeks, it was the size of her head
The tumor threatened to suffocate Jenessa (left, with her mom Theodora) in the womb, and there was a risk Genesis (right, with her dad Epimenio) would develop one too
Rather than opening the uterus to deliver the babies, as is standard for a Cesarean, the team first made a smaller incision in the uterus.
It was just enough to access Jenessa's tiny
