In rare case, woman delivers after ovarian tumour surgery

MUMBAI - In what doctors call a first for India, a Mumbai-based woman who had undergone a critical laparoscopic ovarian tumour surgery delivered a healthy girl child and both the mother and daughter are doing fine, her doctor said here Tuesday.

Akhtari Ansari, 25, underwent a laparoscopic ovarian tumour surgery in the Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in September last year. She was five months pregnant then.

“Hers was the first ever case of its kind in India which has enabled us to save the life of the unborn child,” Niranjan Chavan, head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Sion Hospital here, told IANS.

Ansari, through normal delivery Feb 13, gave birth to a girl who weighed 2.8 kg and is healthy.

“It is a matter of two-fold happiness that the girl child is healthy and safe, especially after her mother went through a complicated surgery in the third trimester of her pregnancy,” Chavan said.

Lauding Chavan’s efforts, Ansari thanked him and his team for saving her child and also putting her through minimal risk during her pregnancy.

“Chavan is a highly reliable doctor and I am glad he not only saved my baby, but also put me through the least possible pain,” Ansari said.

“Ten days after my girl is born, we are both healthy and safe and back home,” she added.

Ansari had in August last year approached Chavan, complaining of severe abdominal pain. She was put through various tests and detailed investigations revealed a seven-month-old large and solid tumour in the left ovary. The patient was already in her fourth month of pregnancy.

“As the pregnancy would have developed, the huge tumour would have pressed the foetus and led to either a miscarriage or a stillborn delivery with the possibility of other health complications,” explained Chavan.

Chavan and his team counselled the woman for removal of the tumour as it posed a risk to the pregnancy.

The benign tumour extended four fingers above the umbilicus in the four-month-old pregnancy, so the option of a laparoscopic ovarian cystectomy was recommended for the patient.

“She was successfully operated Aug 31 and the huge tumour was removed, plus over 200 cc of yellow mucinuous fluid, but her ovary was saved,” Chavan added.