Baby Aylin is held by her mother, Valeria Vela, at Cayetano Heredia Hospital in Lima, Peru, on Wednesday. Aylin is only the fourth case in the world of a successful hepatic ectopic pregnancy, where a mother was able to carry the pregnancy to term and give birth to a healthy baby, despite the placenta being embedded in her liver. Photo by Paolo Aguilar/EPA
Dec. 8 (UPI) -- A multidisciplinary medical team in Peru successfully managed an ectopic pregnancy in which a placenta adhered to the mother's liver was delivered as a full-term baby after 40 weeks of gestation.
Health authorities said this is the first case documented in Peru under these conditions and the fourth reported worldwide in which both the mother and the baby survived.
Health Minister Luis Quiroz Avilés said Valeria Vela, the 19-year-old mother, required a high-risk surgical procedure because removing a placenta attached to the liver could have caused fatal bleeding.
"In this type of condition, attempting to remove the placenta can cause life threatening bleeding in the mother," he said. "For this reason, the arteries were closed by administering a special substance that blocks their blood flow and stops the hemorrhage."
