Baby born with tumour the same size as his body

A baby who was born with a tumour attached to his spine has defied the odds after his parents refused to terminate the pregnancy. Harry Morris’ parents, Maria, 27, and Jack Morris, 25, from Leigh, Wigan, claim they were advised to terminate their pregnancy after discovering that Harry had a rare tumour. Maria went for a private scan last June to determine the gender of her baby, but medics found a tumour which was the size of a grapefruit attached to Harry’s tailbone. She was given the devastating news that the odds of Harry surviving were slim, as the tumour was affecting his blood flow and could strain his heart. Maria, a customer service adviser, said: ‘Harry’s tumour was nearly as big as him when we saw it on the scan, I was so shocked.

‘The midwife referred me to a specialist who basically said there was no hope for the baby, as they were worried about the strain the tumour could be putting on his heart. ‘They then advised that termination may be the best option, so it wasn’t a great start to the pregnancy at all.’ She said that both herself and partner Jack were against terminating the pregnancy, so the head midwife referred them to St Mary’s Hospital where she could be ‘closely monitored.’ It was only after another scan that Maria and Jack were told that Harry had a teratoma tumour – a mass of different tissues such as hair, muscle or bone – which was growing both internally and externally on Harry’s tailbone. Maria added: ‘When they discovered it was a teratoma tumour, they wanted me to undergo an MRI scan.

‘I went back two weeks later to Sheffield University Hospital for the scan, and the tumour had doubled in size in that time – after that I was going to hospital every two weeks to track the tumour’s progress.’ Maria was due on 6 December but, after having contractions on the 8 October, gave birth to Harry via C-section on 9 October, 2018, due to the size of his tumour. There were concerns over Harry’s chances of survival after birth due to the fact he needed to be able to breathe on his own to undergo surgery to remove the tumour. It was also unclear what damage the internal tumour may have done to Harry’s vital organs.

Maria said: ‘Despite Harry being born earlier than expected, I was told his lungs were perfect for a premature baby which was such a relief to hear. ‘With that in mind, he underwent a nine hour surgery to remove the tumour when he was just two hours old.’ Fortunately, after the tumour was sent off for testing, it came back negative for any cancerous cells.

Source and images: metro.co.uk

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