…By Alan Peterson for TDPel Media.
Pregnant Woman with Watermelon-Sized Cyst Saves Unborn Child’s Life
Josephine Hall, a 32-year-old pregnant woman from Northamptonshire, had a watermelon-sized cyst on her ovary that was detected during her 12-week hospital scan.
At first, she was advised that the cyst was benign and so she decided to wait for the operation. At 19 weeks pregnant, Josephine found herself in agony and struggling to walk.
She was rushed to the hospital for emergency abdominal surgery. Medics found she had an ovarian torsion, a potentially fatal condition where her ovary and fallopian tube had twisted on the tissues that support them, cutting off blood supply.
Doctors removed a 20cm cyst, which was “the size of a watermelon,” and were also forced to remove her right ovary and right fallopian tube during the two-hour emergency surgery.
Josephine spent two days recovering in the hospital before returning home to her partner and their daughter. Despite the fact that the cyst wasn’t found to be cancerous, the size and speed that it had grown was potentially life-threatening for both mother and baby.
Josephine continued her pregnancy with regular scans until giving birth to Solomon Ashley Watson, now five months old, who was born in his embryotic sack weighing a healthy 8lbs 4oz.
A Potentially Fatal Ovarian Torsion
Josephine Hall discovered she was pregnant in February 2022 and things were “going smoothly” until the cyst was detected at her first hospital scan in April 2022.
The MRI found that the cyst was made up of mostly skin, fat, and tissues. However, the pain on her right side got progressively worse and, on June 8, 2022, Josephine woke up at around 6 am with agonizing pains.
After 30-minutes, medics found that Josephine had developed a potentially fatal ovarian torsion and explained she’d need emergency abdominal surgery.
Josephine had extra check-ups at the hospital and scans to monitor the baby’s growth throughout the rest of her pregnancy until giving birth naturally at 40 weeks.
The baby was stillborn in his sac and was back home with his family by 4 pm. Josephine expressed her gratitude to the NHS team and her partner for being her rock throughout it all.