MIAMI (WSVN) - An infant who received life-saving surgery while still partially inside her mother’s womb is finally ready to head home.
The Edgecomb family has been waiting months to hear that their daughter, 4-month-old Symphony, can go home. Symphony has spent her entire life at Jackson Memorial Hospital. “I never thought four months could feel so long,” said Symphony’s mother Nicole Hannah-Edgecomb.
Symphony was born via emergency C-section — six weeks early.
“We did something, we call it exit procedure, which means, essentially, we delivered the baby halfway, and treatment of the baby starts while the baby is still attached to the placenta,” said UHealth Dr. Salih Yasin.
A special team of doctors from UHealth removed a plum-sized tumor from Symphony’s heart. “We opened the chest, we evacuated the fluid that was around the heart, and then we’re faced with an enormous tumor,” said UHealth pediatric cardiac surgeon Dr. Eliot Rosenkranz. “It was wrapping itself around the heart and around the lungs and all of the main structures in the middle part of the chest.”
Doctors found the tumor in an ultrasound in what Symphony’s mother though would be an ordinary checkup. “I came for that appointment and I’m thinking, ‘I’m coming for an appointment, we’re doing week by week to try to at least get to 35 weeks,’ and then they let me know, ‘You’re not going home,'” Nicole said. “I come from appointment, to being admitted ,to the next day going through surgery and it was somewhat traumatizing.”
Symphony’s predicament was not easy on her parents. “It was so much, a lot of times just prayer and not really sleeping,” Nicole said. “You’re not supposed to pray and worry, but I prayed and worried.”
However, her family is going from agonizing nights of worry to a family in perfect harmony as Symphony is now home from the hospital. “When I tell you it’s been a long four months, God’s good cause me and my wife we’ve been through a lot,” said Steven Edgecomb, Symphony’s father.
Symphony’s older brother was also born prematurely. As for her progress, doctors will monitor her to make sure the tumor doesn’t come back.
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