I came across an article on MSN, perhaps you’ve already seen it yourself.
It left me awestruck, and near to tears. It shows just how miraculous our God can be.
Mother of four, Keri McCartney was pregnant with her fifth child and in her 23rd week of pregnancy. Eager to find out the sex of the baby, Mr. and Mrs. McCartney loaded up all four of their children and headed to the ultrasound as a family.
They waited as the ultrasound tech worked on Keri’s belly, and their excitement turned to worry as they saw the frown appear on the tech’s face. The tech ushered the children out of the room before informing the expectant parents that their baby girl had a life-threatening tumor.
There was a non-cancerous tumor on the baby’s back that was as big as the fetus. And it was slowly taking her life. The odds of this happening was one in 40,000 pregnancies.
In most cases, the tumors don’t grow this large and the babies are carried to term with no problem. Unfortunately, this tumor was the size of a grapefruit, and would not allow the baby to live past birth if something did not happen soon.
The McCartneys’ went home and decided to give their baby a name. Macie Hope.
They traveled to the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston for a risky surgery to try to save Macie’s life. There was a 10% chance for success, but any chance of hope that she would live was enough for them to go on.
For the surgery, Keri had to go under a deep, deep, deep anesthesia in order for her uterus to relax enough for the surgey. Once asleep, the surgeons took her whole uterus out of her body and felt around for the softest, best place to operate.
80% of Macie’s quarter-pound body was pulled out of her safe-haven in order to remove the enormous tumor. The baby was born for the first time.
They ran the risk of her going into cardiac arrest due to the outside air, so they removed the tumor and placed her back in the safety of her mother’s womb as soon as possible; only taking 20 minutes. It took the rest of the four hours to sew and seal the womb water tight to withstand the rest of the pregnancy.
All the McCartneys’ had left to do was pray, really. Pray for more time.
Macie Hope lived up to her name though, because 10 weeks later she was “born again.” With a large scar on her back and a thick head of hair, she was born alive and healthy.
I hope this touched you as it did me! Happy Thursday =)
Love Hannah Banana
(For the original article, click here.)
