The Miracle Of Baby Jagger: Boy Celebrates 1st Birthday After Removal Of Huge Facial Tumor

HAYWARD, Wis. (WCCO) -- A western Wisconsin family is in awe as they celebrate their little boy's first birthday. He had a medical condition that surprised even the pros.

But as Susan-Elizabeth Littlefield found out, at Children's Minnesota, they found the lifesaving answer they needed.

A baby's first birthday is always a milestone. But in the case of baby Jagger, it's a miracle.

Mycaela and Donovan Scalzo, parents to an almost 1-year-old girl, found out they were expecting a boy. But when they got an ultrasound, there was something they were not expecting.

"He had what's called an oropharyngeal hematoma. And they can be really small or they can be quite large. His was huge," said Dr. Joseph B. Lilligard, surgeon at Children's Minnesota. "It's a condition that happens in 1-to-35,000 to 1-to-200,000 live births. They can block the airway, so the moment the baby is born, they wouldn't have the ability to protect their airway and they wouldn't be able to breathe."

That's when they decided to head south from Hayward to Minneapolis, to the Midwest Fetal Care Center. It's a partnership between Children's Minnesota and Allina Health.

"I think I cried almost every appointment up until he was there," Mycaela said. "It's just so unknown."

But Dr. Lilligard and his coworkers knew what to do. It would require a C-section where the baby would be partially born, while the doctors removed the grapefruit-sized tumor covering his mouth and face.

"You're debulking a huge tumor, so when I come across the tumor, you're taking all this very special blood supply, and you have to do so in a baby that can't breathe on his own, needs all that that support from the placenta," Lilligard said. "Because the surgery itself takes, you know, 20 or 30 minutes. You obviously can't go 20 to 30 minutes without breathing. So the placenta, mom is providing all that support for the baby until we can get that tumor out of the way, the airway secure, and then we can separate the baby from mom."

It was risky, but they were OK.

"It's pretty remarkable. You go from a pretty horrific-type scene to really a quite normal, exciting, almost perfect-like outcome," Lilligard said. "The sky's the limit for Jagger. He can do anything.

After conquering a brain bleed, Jagger was able to leave the hospital after 76 days.

"I cried the entire way from Minneapolis, and I was just so excited. And his dad was driving, he was like, 'Are you just gonna stare at him the whole time?' And I said, 'Yeah, I am,'" Mycaela said. "It was just so exciting for him to meet our daughter and just see them finally like realize that the other exists."

Mycaela says Jagger is growing and thriving. And so together, they celebrate his hard-fought life.

"He's a miracle, and that's the best way I think anyone of us can describe him," she said. "He's the perfect, happy, smiley little miracle, and we're so grateful that we ended up where we did."

Jagger did have another hurdle this past year. He had a brain bleed and was treated for hydrocephalus. He is doing well now and getting stronger.