Missouri woman, 39, gives birth to 'miracle' baby years after having both fallopian tubes removed
A woman who had her fallopian tubes removed has given birth to a healthy baby in what is said to be the first ever documented case of such a birth. Elizabeth Kough, who hails from Kearney, Missouri, had to have both her tubes which connect the ovaries to the uterus removed in 2015 after giving birth to three kids.
However, 39-year-old Kough started to feel a few symptoms of pregnancy last year and took a pregnancy test. She also visited the local hospital to have an ultrasound. Both confirmed, much to her shock, that she was pregnant with her fourth child. Benjamin was born in March and weighed seven pounds and six ounces. Shocked doctors also confirmed that the tubes had been removed and shared with 'Good Morning America' that there had been only three similar cases recorded in medical literature about such births.
This was also the first pregnancy of its kind which resulted in a healthy baby and birth. Kough spoke to Good Morning America and said that there were several reasons that led to her decision to have the tubes removed. The first was that the procedure, known as bilateral salpingectomy, has been known to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer which runs in Kough's family. "I also hit age 35 and they medically say at that age pregnancy becomes more high-risk," she shared.
"I was also divorced and single and had three children, which is quite a blessing for a family, but I thought that was probably enough," she added. The operation was done by Kough's OB-GYN and is normally a foolproof method of contraception but last year, Kough started to feel some of the symptoms of being pregnant. Even though she had dismissed it as unlikely, she decided to take a pregnancy test. The results came back as positive and she immediately told her boyfriend who rushed her to the hospital.
In the majority of cases, this would result in an ectopic pregnancy where the fertilized egg attaches itself outside of the womb. In Kough's case, the baby was developing inside the uterus. Her doctors at Meritas Health in Kansas City could explain the situation. A board-certified OB-GYN at Meritas Health, Dr. Dawn Heizman, said, "None of us have encountered this before." The team believes that the egg had traveled to the uterine horns where the fallopian tube used to be attached, and had passed through to the fistula to end up in the uterus.
Dr. Heizman also shared that she had only come across three other cases in the medical literature of pregnancy after both fallopian tubes had been removed. "The fact that Elizabeth delivered a healthy boy with all of these very rare circumstances, it's like a miracle. This was impressive."