A cold Iowa day in January 2022 was supposed to be a time of celebration for Hannah Kendrick. But, instead of celebrating her birthday – the first-time expecting mom and her husband, Josh, spent the day with a maternal-fetal medicine specialist close to their home outside Des Moines.
The couple already knew after their 20-week ultrasound appointment that fluid was building around their unborn daughter’s heart. Now, they nervously waited to meet with Dr. Oscar Viteri at UnityPoint Health Perinatal Center for an official diagnosis. Dr. Viteri told the new parents their daughter, Harriet, had a large tumor growing on the outside of her heart.
“Josh and I waited nine years into our marriage before having a child. We were absolutely elated when I got pregnant with Harriet and just as equally terrified when we received her diagnosis,” Hannah said.
This extremely rare diagnosis – called a pericardial teratoma – meant a large, unpredictable, tumor could compress Harriet’s heart and cause it to fail. The condition is so rare that from 2000-2020, only 55 fetal pericardial teratomas were reported worldwide. The tumor on Harriet’s tiny heart would eventually grow to the size of a walnut – nearly the size of her entire heart.