MaKenna Lauterbach, 26, experienced severe coughing fits in the last three months of her pregnancy. Doctors initially dismissed her symptoms, attributing them to pregnancy. However, when the coughing led to vomiting, scans revealed a grapefruit-sized tumor in her chest cavity and right lung, blocking the artery to the right lung. The tumor, extremely rare in its invasion of major heart blood vessels, put Lauterbach and her baby in respiratory distress. She was airlifted to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago for emergency treatment.
A Chicago woman was just weeks away from giving birth when a nagging cough led to a shocking medical discovery . MaKenna Lauterbach, then 26 years old, began experiencing severe coughing fits in the last three months of her pregnancy. 'They would be so severe that I would become winded and nauseous to the point of vomiting,' she told Fox News Digital.
Lauterbach, who lives on a farm in Washburn, Illinois, also began noticing shortness of breath while tending to her horses and goats. 'I give hay to the horses every morning and noticed how winded I was becoming with a dry cough,' she said. 'My body felt like I just ran two miles, when, in reality, I had only walked to the barn and back.' Some doctors dismissed Lauterbach’s symptoms, she said, repeatedly telling her, 'It’s because you are pregnant.
If the tumor had grown just slightly more into the main artery going to the lungs, or if it had involved the heart, it would have been a different outcome. But the surgery was a success, and Lauterbach’s latest scans showed no evidence of metastatic melanoma. 'Her outcome was very good,' Dr. Lung told Fox News Digital. 'She has recovered from surgery almost entirely, and her main issue is shortness of breath, which is a consequence of only having one lung.
Her cancer is currently considered a 'stable disease,' doctors say, which means no new tumors have appeared. The new mother, who turned 27 in October, said she is looking forward to her son’s first Christmas on the farm. 'Emotionally, I try my best not to let reality weigh on me, but there are some days when the bad memories and the unknowns haunt my thoughts,' she said.
Brain Cancer Pregnancy Tumor Medical Discovery Respiratory Distress
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