Physicians in Los Angeles are calling the unexpected delivery of a baby boy who was hidden behind a 22-pound tumor in his mother's womb a "medical miracle."

Suze Lopez of California was scheduled to have a 22-pound ovarian cyst removed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center when she discovered she was carrying an almost full-term baby during a routine test before her planned surgery. 

In a press release, the hospital explained that Lopez, an emergency room nurse, had been growing the ovarian cyst for years. 

"Because of the large ovarian cyst that had been growing for years, it could have been a false positive, even ovarian cancer," Lopez said in the press release. "And I was used to very irregular periods and some abdominal discomfort. I could not believe that after 17 years of praying and trying for a second child, I was actually pregnant."

Lopez said she took three pregnancy tests to be sure. 

Three days after finding out she was pregnant, she decided to share the good news with her husband, Andrew Lopez, while on a date at a L.A. Dodgers game. Lopez was excited and thought she was around two to three months far along. 

However, during the trip, the 41-year-old nurse started having pain in her abdomen, and they headed to Cedars-Sinai.

A team of doctors and nurses under the supervision of Dr. John Ozimek, medical director of Labor and Delivery at Cedars-Sinai, worked to stabilize her blood pressure, ordered an MRI, blood work, and an ultrasound.

Ozimek was shocked to discover a very rare abdominal ectopic pregnancy.

"Suze was pregnant, but her uterus was empty, and a giant benign ovarian cyst weighing over 20 pounds was taking up so much space," Ozimek said. "We then discovered a nearly full-term baby boy in a small space in the abdomen, near the liver, with his butt resting on the uterus. A pregnancy this far outside the uterus that continues to develop is almost unheard of."

"It was very shocking because I initially thought she was two to three months pregnant, and turns out she was 41 weeks," Andrew told Fox News L.A.

The physician explained that as the baby grew inside Lopez's abdomen, behind the mass, it pushed the very large cyst forward.

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"It makes sense that she just thought the tumor was getting bigger again, not that she could be pregnant," Ozimek said. 

In an abdominal ectopic pregnancy, the fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, often on vital organs or major blood vessels. The placenta cannot safely grow there, creating an exceptionally high risk of catastrophic maternal bleeding and fetal death. A surviving infant is extraordinarily rare and often faces severe complications, Cedars-Sinai explained.

"It was profound to see this full-term baby sitting behind a very large ovarian tumor, not in the uterus. In my entire career, I've never even heard of one making it this far into the pregnancy," said gynecological oncologist Michael Manuel, MD, of Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center.

Dr. Manuel was assigned to remove the giant cyst and was among 30 experts, which included maternal-fetal medicine specialists, gynecological oncologists, nurses, anesthesiologists, and specialists, to assist in the delivery of the baby. 

"We had to figure out how to deliver the baby with a placenta and its blood vessels attached in the abdomen, remove the very large ovarian mass, and do everything we could to save mom and this child," Manuel said.

The delivery was complex, but the highly specialized team was able to remove the cyst and then quickly deliver the baby boy, who the parents named Ryu. He weighed 8 pounds and had very few health complications, doctors said. 

And despite running into a complication, experts were able to quickly help Lopez.

"As soon as the baby was delivered, Lopez started hemorrhaging badly. We were a specially trained team of obstetric anesthesiologists and well prepared, but it was still intense," said anesthesiologist Michael Sanchez, MD. "I had already powered up a special machine that delivers blood products fast because every second matters. We used 11 units of blood."

And while little Ryu "defied the odds" in the NICU, his mother  "focused on recovering quickly" so she could reunite with her newborn. 

Ryu's parents gave him the middle name of Jesse, which means "gift from God."

"He is our gift," the father said later, telling Good Morning America, "Miracles happen, and he definitely was a miracle for us."

Suze shares that her second child is a "modern-day miracle" after trying to get pregnant for 20 years. 

"I appreciate every little thing. Everything. Every day is a gift, and I'm never going to waste it. God gave me this baby so that he could be an example to the world that God exists – that miracles, modern-day miracles, do happen."