Margaret Boemer was just 16 weeks pregnant when doctors discovered a tumour in the tailbone of her unborn third child.
Not everyone can say they have two birthdays a year but it’s something little Lynlee Boemer can be proud of when she’s older.
The miracle baby was born twice after after being removed from her mother’s womb at just 23 weeks for a lifesaving operation and then reinserted.
At 23 weeks they noticed the tumour was almost the size of Lynlee and she was going into heart failure, leaving them with no choice but to operate.
“We knew that if we didn’t choose the option of emergency surgery that night, that within a day or so she would pass,” Margaret told Wate.com .
Speaking with CNN , she added: “LynLee didn’t have much of a chance. At 23 weeks, the tumour was shutting her heart down and causing her to go into cardiac failure, so it was a choice of allowing the tumour to take over her body or giving her a chance at life.
“It was an easy decision for us: We wanted to give her life.”
Surgeons removed Lynlee, who weight 1lb 3oz, from the womb and carried out the five hour operation before she was placed back and the uterus sewn up.
She remained there while Margaret was kept on bedrest for another 12 weeks and she was born for the second time via cesarean section, weighing 5lb 5oz, on June 6 – when she was almost full term.