With mass in chest removed, looks like newborn Angel Gomez is going to be just fine

High-risk OB specialists, maternal-fetal experts, surgeons, anesthesiologists, neonatologists, radiologists and more strategize to put newborn Angel Gomez on the road to recovery

“As soon as they cut the cord, my baby turned blue,” said Yesenia Torres, mom of 4-week-old Angel Gomez, who is soon heading home to Oakland from the intensive care nursery at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. “I didn’t even hold him until the next day.”

The scary moment at mom’s C-section on December 6 was actually expected. That’s because high-risk OB and maternal-fetal medicine experts at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health had been planning since November 6, the day mom was admitted, to whisk baby Angel to surgery at the hospital immediately after Angel’s birth, which occurred prematurely at 34 weeks. The East Bay mom had been advised elsewhere of possibly terminating the pregnancy, but a 2^nd opinion from specialists at the Center for Fetal and Maternal Health gave the family hope.

It was hope born of experience. An ultrasound had detected a large mass in the fetus’ chest, so large that some were worried that it would compress the lung tissue so much that normal lung development was not possible.

But a large and experienced team, one that reinvented the term “multidisciplinary,” reviewed the case and determined there was a possibility of saving the pregnancy. Using a dual operating room strategy supported by massive planning, the C-section occurred in one OR while a surgery team was ready in an adjacent room to quickly open Angel’s chest, remove the mass, create an airway – and then, check for vital signs to improve. They did.

Now off all respiratory support, Angel’s story is making him a media star (Fox-2, ABC-7, CBS-5). Meanwhile, mom is busy sharing the importance of 2^nd opinions – and expressing thanks for a team that can turn a high-risk pregnancy into a very happy ending.

Discover more about our Johnson Center for Pregnancy & Newborn Services or call (650) 498-2229.