A family in California is celebrating a miraculous first Christmas with their newborn son, whose arrival defied extraordinary medical odds. The baby, Ryu, was delivered in August 2025 after developing as a full-term ectopic pregnancy, a condition doctors describe as staggeringly rare.
A Shocking Discovery Days Before Birth
Suze Lopez, a 41-year-old emergency room nurse from Bakersfield, was unaware she was expecting until just days before she gave birth. For months, medical professionals had been monitoring a massive, 22lb ovarian cyst on her abdomen. When increasing pain and pressure led her to seek its removal, a routine pre-operative pregnancy test delivered stunning news: she was pregnant.
Lopez, who had her right ovary removed years prior due to cysts, experienced no typical pregnancy symptoms. "Because of the large ovarian cyst that had been growing for years, it could have been a false positive, even ovarian cancer," Lopez explained in a statement from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. "I could not believe that after 17 years of praying, and trying, for a second child, that I was actually pregnant."
An 'Essentially Unheard Of' Medical Case
The situation quickly escalated when Lopez returned to hospital with severe abdominal pain and dangerously high blood pressure. Scans revealed a startling truth: her uterus was empty, but a fetus was growing in her abdomen, concealed behind the enormous cyst. This was an abdominal ectopic pregnancy, where the fertilised egg implants outside the womb.
Dr John Ozimek, who leads the labour and delivery ward at Los Angeles's Cedars-Sinai, underscored the extreme rarity of the case. He stated that ectopic pregnancies reaching full term are "essentially unheard of – far, far less than one in a million". "I mean, this is really insane," he added. The hospital estimates such dangerous pregnancies occur in roughly one in 30,000 pregnancies, with plans to document this case in medical journals.
Successful Delivery and a Family Thriving
On 18 August 2025, a team of 30 doctors at Cedars-Sinai performed surgery to deliver baby Ryu and simultaneously remove the massive cyst from his mother. The procedure was complex; Lopez lost a significant amount of blood, and Ryu required a two-week stay in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Miraculously, both made a full recovery. A Cedars-Sinai spokesperson confirmed, "The family is doing great. Mom and baby [are] all thriving." While The Guardian could not reach Lopez for comment, the mother of two shared her joy on Facebook, writing: "Praise the Lord. Our family has a very special and surprising Christmas gift this year."
