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Woman has cyst removed and is stunned to learn it had teeth, hair, and maybe even an eyeball

They're called teratomas, and they are the stuff of nightmares. They're also really misunderstood.

Canva Photos & E.dronism - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Woman lying in hospital bed.

The human body is fascinating and, to this day even, full of mysteries. Did you know there's a condition called Stoneman Syndrome where a person's ligaments slowly transform into bones? Or how about Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome where a person lives their entire life on the brink of orgasm? Or how about Auto-brewery Syndrome, where a person's gut biome naturally creates alcohol out of normal foods and beverages, thereby making them intoxicated without drinking a drop of booze?

The body is capable of extraordinary and extremely bizarre things, that's for sure.

That was certainly the case when 20-year-old Savannah Stuthers went in for a relatively routine cyst removal that turned out to be anything but.

Stuthers dealt with months of cramps, pain, and even bleeding—which doctors told her was normal after having an IUD inserted—before she couldn't take it anymore and took herself to the emergency room.

There, ER docs discovered a sizable cyst on one of her ovaries. Because the cyst was so large, the OBGYN at the hospital wanted to have it removed as soon as possible. Within a few days, Stuthers went under the knife.

When she woke up from the anesthesia, the doctors had news. Her mom was there to capture the moment Stuthers heard that what was removed from her body was no normal ovarian cyst. It was a teratoma—a unique kind of tumor that grows from germ cells (cells that eventually become sperm or, in Stuthers' case, eggs). Because of their origin, teratomas frequently grow hair and even teeth, along with various kinds of tissue. The teratoma inside Stuthers' ovary had all that, and more... The surgeons even thought Stuther's teratoma may have had an eyeball! (Later testing ruled this out... close call!)

Here's the exact moment Savannah Stuthers learned what had been growing inside of her:

teratoma, tumor, cancer, women's health, women, health, hospital, doctor, OBGYN, reproductive health, ovarian cystSavannah Struthers was horrified to learn that her cyst was actually not a cyst at all.www.tiktok.com

Stuthers posted the photo on TikTok where it went mega-viral to the tune of 34 million views. The morbid curiosity in the comment thread was absolutely off the charts. Many people had never heard of teratomas before, and most of them wish they still hadn't.

"Girl I could have went my entire life without looking up what a teratoma is," one wrote.

"I just looked at photos of teratomas and it made my arm get chills," a user added.

"it's crazy the body can actually create new eyes and teeth and THIS is what it chooses to use that ability for," said another.

Other commenters were just here to applaud the teratoma representation:

"this happened to me, they removed my ovary with the teratoma and my surgeous said it burst on her 😩 I was the first surgery of the day"

"this happened to my sister but there were brain cells in hers, causing her anti bodies to fight off both the teratoma braincells as well as her actual braincells putting her in a coma for 4 months. it was awful."

Of course, there were plenty of jokes, too:

"Why am I picturing Mike Wazoski from Monsters Inc???" one user said.

"Can we see it? ❌ Can it see us? ✅" joked another.

Mostly, people just wanted to know if they could see a picture of the actual teratoma. Stuthers did eventually show a photo briefly in a follow up video, but luckily for us, we can get a better look at these things through a plethora of high-res online images.

Ready? If you're squeamish, you might want to look away now.

teratoma, tumor, cancer, women's health, women, health, hospital, doctor, OBGYN, reproductive health, ovarian cystA teratoma with lots and lots of hair growth.Ed Uthman, MD. - Public Domain

Stuthers was not about to let her newfound virality go to waste: She set right to work busting myths and misconceptions about teratomas.

Obviously, with 34 million viewers and many who had never heard of teratomas, she was going to get a lot of questions. She also got a lot of opinions that needed correcting.

"Those things form from sperm so tell your man to get a better pull out game or use protection," one commenter said. In a response video, Stuthers simply wags her finger: Uh, no. Teratomas form from germ cells, which can turn into sperm, but they have nothing at all to do with sexual activity.

Another asked if the teratoma formed from a pregnancy gone wrong in the early stages. "So you would've maybe had a viable pregnancy but it didn't make it down into the uterus." Stuthers responded by citing that teratomas are actually congenital tumors, meaning they are present or begin forming prior to birth. So this was lurking in her body for a long time before it reached critical mass and had to be removed, and again, has nothing to do with her sexual activity whatsoever.

(Sorry, one more photo incoming.)

teratoma, tumor, cancer, women's health, women, health, hospital, doctor, OBGYN, reproductive health, ovarian cystAn ovarian teratoma with a long strand of visible hair.E.dronism - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

In an interview with Newsweek, Stuthers said that discovering the teratoma inside of her made her feel "gross."

"It messed me up for a while thinking about how I never knew that it was there. In a way, it made me feel gross. The photo of the tumor truly altered my brain chemistry," she said. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Teratomas, while admittedly a little freaky and frightening, are really no different than any other kind of tumor. It's their origin from germ cells which makes them capable of growing human tissue, teeth, hair, and eyeball-like structures.

But they're understandably hard to talk about. And so as a result, the general public doesn't understand teratomas very well. But Stuthers is working to change that with her follow-up videos on TikTok.

She also wants to encourage young women to advocate for themselves medically. Doctors dismissed her pain and discomfort for months before she finally went to the ER, and she's urging women to trust their gut and fight for their own bodies:

"I got lucky as we found it in time so nothing too extreme happened. But I can't help but think that if my doctors in Illinois would've listened, I would still have both ovaries. It is so important for women to express our pain and not allow doctors to invalidate us."

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Health

OBGYN explains the eyebrow-raising reason you're not allowed to eat during labor

"Let's talk about forcing laboring people to have no food, sometimes for DAYS, during labor admissions."

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OBGYN explains the eyebrow-raising reason you can't eat during labor

If you've ever delivered a baby in the hospital or been a part of someone's support system while they gave birth, then you know that American hospitals generally have a strict policy on not eating while in labor. As someone who had children in a hospital, not being able to eat while in pain can make you feel absolutely feral. Weak, but feral.

Most people I know who have had babies don't understand the seemingly nationwide hospital policy on depriving birthing people of food right before they push an entire human out of their bodies. Delivering a baby is not a bystander event for the one doing the pushing, so restricting calories is a confusing practice.

Turns out there's a reason for this strange practice, and honestly, I can't promise that it won't make you angry. Dr. Danielle Jones, board-certified OB-GYN, breaks down why doctors started this practice in a video uploaded to her YouTube channel, Mama Doctor Jones.

Jones starts the video by explaining that the practice of not allowing people giving birth to eat began around the same time they stopped using chloroform to reduce pain during labor. I mean, I suppose you couldn't feel any pain if you were unconscious, so the 40s were off to a swimming start.


In 1946, Dr. Curtis Mendelson published a paper focusing on labor complications, in which he revealed that the aspiration risk during pregnancy was 0.15%.

"Aspiration is where you inhale stomach contents into the lungs. That can be extremely dangerous. It can kill you. It often doesn't kill you but it certainly can," Jones explains. "The risk of aspiration comes along mainly when we're talking about needing to do a cesarian delivery or some kind of surgery on someone who is pregnant under a general anesthetic."

Obviously, in 1946, it was a little riskier to have a baby and maternal mortality was atrociously high. This isn't the case anymore and general anesthesia for a cesarian is very rarely used, so the risk of aspiration is even lower.

The obstetric risk of aspiration, "was based on two deaths from aspiration in 40,000 pregnancies in 1946," Jones continued. "For those following who like the numbers, the risk of dying from obstetric aspiration in 1946 when it was magnitudes more common to die from pregnancy and also anesthetic techniques made it easier to aspirate was 0.0045%."

So...what she's saying is, I probably could've eaten that cheeseburger because it's not 1946, and not only do doctors know to wash their hands before surgery, but they also have better techniques for anesthesia? Hmmm...

Watch the whole video below to see if maybe hospitals should allow a little snacky-snack between contractions.

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labor and delivery
Family

Rare video of newborn baby born in an intact amniotic sac is absolutely mesmerizing

@nachoptomasone/Instagram

An en caul birth video shared by an OB-GYN in Argentina has gone viral.

Anyone who has experienced or attended a birth knows how magical it can be to witness a brand new human make its entrance into the outside world. Each birth is unique, each baby born an individual with untold potential.

But some births are extra unusual. In the vast majority of births, the protective amniotic sac that holds the baby and the amniotic fluid it "breathes" in the womb breaks at some point in the labor and delivery process. En caul births, in which a baby is born inside an intact amniotic sac, only occur in about 1 in 80,000 births. It's more common in cesarean births than vaginal births, but still very rare overall.

An en caul birth, sometimes called a "mermaid birth" or "veiled birth," is seen as a sign of good luck for the baby and parents in some cultures. From a scientific observation point of view, en caul births can give us close-up look at what a baby's life is like in utero.

Due to the rarity of such births (and the understandable desire for patient privacy), it's not often that the public gets to see what it looks like. But a viral video showing a baby who was just born en caul offers a beautiful view of what it looks like. Seeing the baby curled up inside the sac and subsequently being "birthed" from it is simply mesmerizing.

Watch:

The video was shared by Dr. Ignacio Perez Tomasone, an OB-GYN in Argentina, on his Instagram account. Dr. Perez Tomasone shares birth videos on his Instagram regularly, but they don't usually garner more than 3 million views or get comments from people all over the world like this one did.

People referred to the video as "beautiful," "magnificent," "incredible" and "miraculous." The video has also been shared widely on Facebook, with thousands of comments gushing over how amazing it is to see.

Every human being who has ever lived on Earth had to be born into this world, and yet every birth is still a fascinating wonder. The opportunity to see a rare and extra special birth like this one is a gift to us all. Thank you, Dr. Perez Tomasone, for sharing it.

(By the way, If you're curious about the music played with the video, it's the song "Devuélvete" by indie Mexican artist Carla Morrison.)

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family

One hospital's December tradition brings people together in the most adorable way.

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Every December, something very special (and very adorable) is tucked inside the holiday stockings at one California hospital — BABIES!

Image via Nikyah Pfeiffer, used with permission.

Since the 1930s, Redlands Community Hospital has been swaddling December babies in cozy stockings sewn by local volunteers as a special gift to the parents.

The Linen Committee — a group of hospital auxiliary volunteers who mainly took care of sheets and towels — first started the project. By the 1960s, it had really taken off, and a full-fledged sewing committee was needed just to make the stockings.

Today, the yearly tradition is undertaken with the help of the Redlands Sewing Center and a strong community of people who want to keep the tradition alive.

"We accept all volunteers that are willing to come and help us out," says Sue Carlson, event coordinator at Redlands Sewing Center. "We don’t even ask them to bring their own machines. They use our store machines, so they just come down."

"Last year, we had a customer that came in just to buy something," she adds, "and we showed her what was going on, and she sat down for like an hour and donated some time. ... To me, that’s what it’s about."

Image via Sue Carlson, used with permission.

Seeing people come together to make these stockings is an amazing thing. But what's even more amazing is seeing the heartwarming reactions to stocking-clad babies.

"We don’t really announce it," Nikyah Pfeiffer, marketing manager at Redlands Community Hospital, says. "It’s more of a pleasant surprise that we like to give to our patients."

Of course, some parents do know about the tradition — it's hard to keep something this adorable a secret from year to year — but that doesn't take away any of the magic.

That's because the tradition means a lot to the families. "I think it makes them feel like they’re a part of something bigger than just having their baby born in a hospital," Pfeiffer says. "It helps bring a sense of community, and they’re always grateful that they had their baby here."

Unfortunately, the tradition was paused for a while in the 1990s but then brought back by Sylvia Terifay, a longtime volunteer and coordinator for the stocking tradition, in 2005 with the help of the Redlands Sewing Center. She passed away this year, and the community is dedicated now more than ever to continue the tradition in her honor.

One thing that will never disappear is the lasting effect Redlands Community Hospital has had on families over generations.

Wrapping babies in holidays stockings isn't the only way the hospital is working to build up the sense of community either.

Image via Nikyah Pfeiffer, used with permission.

Since the early 1900s, the hospital has had another tradition — Baby Day — that takes place every five years. On this day, the families of the babies born at Redlands Community Hospital gather for one big group picture.

The hospital hangs Baby Day photos in a hallway dedicated to the history of the community,and it has become a landmark of sorts with local families.

"They bring their children and their grandchildren back to the hospital to show them their particular picture," says Pfeiffer. "It’s just a generational thing that’s really great to see because you don’t get that type of connection very much with hospitals anymore."

Image via Nikyah Pfeiffer, used with permission.

These traditions have managed to forge a powerful bond between the hospital and its community that has lasted for decades.

And this bond will continue for generations to come.

After all, who's going to get tired of seeing a newborn snuggled into a holiday stocking?

Um, no one.

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