The Miracle of Maia

Robotic-assisted technology helps cancer survivor become a mother

Brad and Carrie Lintner of Climax, Michigan, had a special reason to celebrate on February 25. It was their daughter Maia’s first birthday — a happy event that Carrie Lintner thought she’d never see when she was diagnosed, for the second time, with a type of cancer called Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Arnold Advincula with the da Vinci surgical robot Photo: Martin Vloet

This time, it was stage III Hodgkin’s lymphoma and far more advanced than the stage I Hodgkin’s she had conquered years earlier. When doctors told her she needed pelvic radiation treatment to fight the cancer, her first thought was: “If I have to undergo radiation, what about a family?” says Lintner, a dentist in Kalamazoo. “It was always one of my hopes to have kids.”

The Lintners came to the University of Michigan Health System to discuss their options with Arnold Advincula, M.D., clinical assistant professor and director of minimally invasive surgery in the Medical School’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“Advances in technology and medicine have made it possible for physicians to offer new fertility-preserving treatments to patients with cancer and other medical conditions,” Advincula says. “Women who want to preserve their fertility have more options today than ever before.”

Carrie, Maia and Brad Lintner Photo: Marie Frost

The option Advincula suggested to the Lintners was ovarian transposition, a procedure that moves the ovaries to a more protected location. In Carrie’s case, the ovaries were moved behind the uterus, allowing the uterus to act as a shield against tissue-damaging radiation. Advincula used robotic-assisted technology to perform the delicate surgical procedure through several small incisions in Carrie’s abdomen.

All of this was done in the hope that she would be able to conceive a child. There was no guarantee it would work, but Advincula hoped it would at least preserve Carrie’s ovarian function and prevent her from going into menopause at an early age.

But would the procedure allow her to conceive? Only time would tell — and, as it turned out, not much time was needed. Shortly after the surgery, the Lintners learned that Carrie was pregnant. After a normal pregnancy and an easy labor, Maia Lintner was born on February 25, 2005.

“The first thing I said to her after she was born was, ‘Are you OK?’” says Carrie Lintner. “She is an absolute joy. She is the light of my life. I feel like it’s a miracle.”

Advincula is thrilled for the Lintners, and he believes that advances in robotic-assisted technology will help more women in the future. University Hospital was one of the first hospitals in the United States to offer robotic-assisted surgery. In the area of gynecological surgery, the U-M Health System is a leader in robotic myomectomy — a procedure that removes fibroid tumors from the uterus and makes it possible for women to preserve their fertility and avoid invasive surgery.

—Katie Gazella and Sally Pobojewski

For an expanded version of the story:
www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/hmfertility.htm

For patient information on preserving fertility during cancer treatment:
www.cancer.med.umich.edu/clinic/fertilityclinic.htm

For patient information on the UMHS Minimally Invasive Surgery Program in Obstetrics and Gynecology:
www2.med.umich.edu/departments/obgyn/
index.cfm?fuseaction=Obgyn.MISP