A baby girl is healthy and thriving after doctors in Madison removed a nearly two-pound tumor from her neck.

Layla’s life-saving surgery was performed by the doctors atthe UW Health Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment Center.

Ashley Manderle, Layla’s mom, of Waupun, said at her 16-week appointment, an ultrasound showed her baby had a mass on the left side of her neck.

For the next four weeks, doctors closely monitored the tumor, watching it nearly double in size.

At this point, Manderle said doctors feared the tumor would get so big, it would completely crush Layla’s airway.

Layla was delivered at 32 weeks viaEx Utero Intrapartum Treatment (EXIT) procedure. It’s similar to a C-section, but the baby is partially delivered, while still attached to the mother.

Dr. Inna Lobeck, pediatric and fetal surgeon, said they delivered Layla’s head, the mass and one arm, while keeping Layla connected to Manderle though the umbilical cord and placenta, giving Layla all the oxygen she needed so doctors could insert a breathing tube.

It took doctors 12 minutes to insert the breathing tube.

“If you can imagine if she was born without an EXIT, 12 minutes is a long time, so she would be very high risk of cerebral palsy, neurodevelopmental delay where very likely death, because you can’t go 12 minutes without an airway,” Dr. Lobeck said.

Manderle said she was cut from hip to hip to make enough room to partially pull Layla and the tumor out.

Once the breathing tube was inserted, Layla was fully delivered.

Dr. Lobeck said the tumor was 17 cm, bigger than Layla’s head.

While Layla awaited surgery to remove the tumor, she had to be kept on her belly or her side, otherwise the weight of the tumor would have collapsed her airway, even with a breathing tube in it.

Four days later, doctors successfully removed the tumor.

Manderle says Layla is doing great and surprisingly there’s very little scarring.

Dr. Lobeck says UW Health has performed three EXITs in the past year.