Dr. T.Y. Hsia with Taylor and parents Katherine and Sean Stenhouse

A team of pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons succeeded in performing a rare and challenging procedure when they removed a 6.5-centimeter mass from the heart of a 2-month-old boy from Myrtle Beach.
   
After removing a tumor the size of two golf balls, the surgeons reconstructed the inside and outside of the heart of Taylor Stenhouse. The baby now is recovering and doing fine, his doctors said.
 
His road to survival began after a routine checkup disclosed a heart murmur. Taylor’s parents, Katherine and Sean, immediately brought him from Myrtle Beach to MUSC’s cardiology program for a closer look. An EKG and an echocardiogram revealed a giant tumor pressing on Taylor’s heart. The pressure of the tumor, along with the fluid in his chest cavity, severely compromised the heart. The prognosis initially was unclear.
 
“Tumors that originate in the heart are extremely rare, but they can either be benign or malignant,” said T.Y. Hsia, M.D., pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon. “Only a handful of similar cases have presented in the country where the tumor has been this massive and life-threatening.”
 
After Taylor was admitted to the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, a team of specialists met to determine the best medical course of action. They quickly realized that Taylor would not survive long with the tumor. At the same time, great risks were associated with removing the tumor.
 
“Dr. Hsia told me about a similar case he had seen in Philadelphia, and because of that, he felt confident to take the surgical approach,” said Katherine. “But he also told me that Taylor’s tumor was much larger than the case he had previously seen.”
 
Hsia explained there were many unanswered questions until they operated. Was the tumor benign? After removing a mass so large, would there be enough tissue to put the heart back together? If they could put the heart back together, would the heart function properly?
 
Taylor’s parents agreed surgery was their best option. “Handing my child over to someone else was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Katherine said. “Dr. Hsia warned me that Taylor could go into cardiac arrest and there was more than a 50 percent chance he wouldn’t survive.”
 
On Feb. 8, Hsia and his team operated on Taylor. Once in surgery, Hsia saw that the tumor had essentially replaced the right ventricle of the heart. After successfully removing the tumor, the team needed to extensively reconstruct not only the outside of the heart, but the inside as well. Several hours later, the surgery was complete.
 
Five days later, Taylor left the hospital to go home with his parents and 2-year-old sister. He will only need to return for monthly checkups and routine echocardiograms to ensure his heart is functioning properly.
 
“Taylor is our miracle baby and without the doctors at MUSC, he wouldn’t be here today,” Katherine said.