California Woman Successfully Delivers Baby from Extremely Rare Ectopic Pregnancy
Suze Lopez, a 41-year-old emergency room nurse from Bakersfield, California, delivered her baby, named Ryu, on 18 August 2025 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. The birth was the result of an extremely rare ectopic pregnancy, where the fertilized egg implanted outside the uterus, hidden behind a 22-pound ovarian cyst.
Such pregnancies are estimated to occur in about 1 in 30,000 cases, with full-term ectopic pregnancies being even rarer, described as far less than one in a million. Lopez had a long history of ovarian cysts and had previously undergone removal of her right ovary along with another cyst.
Lopez only discovered she was pregnant days before delivery after a routine pregnancy test was conducted during a hospital visit for abdominal pain and high blood pressure. During the subsequent surgery, doctors simultaneously removed the 22-pound cyst and delivered baby Ryu, with approximately 30 doctors participating in the procedure.
Lopez experienced significant blood loss during the operation, and baby Ryu spent two weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Both mother and baby have since recovered fully. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center plans to document this extraordinary case in medical journals.
