Newborn baby in Kentucky is dubbed ‘Mini Hulk’ after lymphangioma condition left her with bulging arms and torso
A newborn baby has been nicknamed the ‘baby hulk’ after a rare condition caused her arms and chest to become extremely swollen.
Armani Milby, from Campbellsville, Kentucky, has a severe form of lymphangioma, a condition that causes benign tumors to grow in the lymphatic vessels, tube-like structures that transport fluid throughout the body.
The swelling has caused her upper body and arms to become disproportionately large compared to the rest of her body.
Armani’s mother Chelsey, 33, affectionately nicknamed her daughter ‘mini Hulk’ when she was born because she looked ‘like a mini bodybuilder’.
Armani Milby, from Campbellsville, Kentucky, was born with a condition that left her with swollen arms and legs. Her mother Chelsey has nicknamed her ‘mini Hulk’
Baby Armani, pictured, spent the first three months of her life in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the hospital. She is pictured above shortly after being born with her mother
Armani spent the first three months of her life in the hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she received specialist treatment to drain excess fluid from her arms.
She will now undergo surgery to remove the excess lymphatic vessels so that her arms and chest can return to normal.
She will also need surgery to remove excess skin on her body.
Now that some fluid has drained from her arms, her mother has taken to calling her “squishy.”
“Now she’s soft,” said Mrs. Milby, “I just call her my little soft baby. She’s doing very well.’
Her daughter’s condition, which can be caused by genetic or hormone problems, was diagnosed at week 17 of pregnancy.
Armani weighed 12 pounds when she was born and made her mother look so big when she was pregnant that strangers would ask if she was having triplets.
Doctors gave Armani a “zero percent” chance of survival, Ms Milby said, but the child cried as soon as she was born by caesarean section at 33 weeks and has been fighting ever since.
Mrs Milby, who has two other children, said she was left in tears after the news. She said she didn’t understand why her baby had the condition.
Lymphangioma causes fluid-filled bumps or cysts to form under the skin because the lymphatic vessels overgrow and no longer drain fluid from the body.
The condition is rare and affects approximately one in 4,000 children. The diagnosis is normally made at birth or in the first few years of childhood.
Swelling often occurs in the head and neck area because these areas have a relatively high concentration of lymphatic vessels compared to other parts of the body.
But they can also appear in other places, such as on the chest and arms. Of those diagnosed in the womb, only 22 percent survive, according to doctors.
The doctors said Armani wouldn’t make it, but she was born by caesarean section at 33 weeks and immediately started crying. She has now undergone treatment to drain some of the fluid from her body
During surgery, doctors will cut away the abnormal lymphatic tissue to stimulate fluid drainage from the body and prevent the fluid from building up.
Patients may also undergo a procedure called sclerotherapy, in which a special drug is injected into the body that causes irritation and scarring of the abnormal lymphatic tissue, causing it to shrink and collapse.
Mrs Milby said: ‘I had never heard of the diagnosis and to be honest I had looked into it and I didn’t really like the results of some of the pictures.
“When I found out, I was honestly devastated, my heart was broken. I didn’t understand what happened, what went wrong, because I still had two healthy babies and I cried every day. Every day I asked God why.’
But describing her daughter now, she said, “She has a lot of extra skin. It will all go away and she will be the normal looking baby. She’ll just have significant scarring from the surgeries and stuff.
‘She was lucky. She’s not deformed or anything like that. I’ve seen some cases where they, and God bless those kids, are fighters.
‘She’s happy. She hardly ever cries unless she wants to be held. We are trying to do everything for this baby and give her the best life possible.
“She finally turned around and she’s trying to say ‘mama.’ I’m pretty sure she’s getting really close.
‘She’s doing great. She is literally my miracle baby, and we love her so much.”
The baby has a condition called lymphangioma, which has caused her arms and chest to become swollen due to a buildup of fluid. This is caused by an overgrowth of the lymphatic vessels, which are responsible for draining fluid, causing them to not drain fluid properly
Armani is pictured above with her mother Chelsey and father Blake. Her mother said she looks like a mini bodybuilder
Describing the pregnancy, Mrs Milby said: ‘My body shut down. Something told me it was time to get her out. I weighed almost 200 pounds and my health became very poor.
‘I suffered every day; I could never sleep. I was extremely sick.
‘That’s why I had them take her at 33 weeks, because my body was shutting down and it was getting harder every day to live and actually breathe because I was so uncomfortable having to keep having fluid drained from my stomach.
‘To everyone’s surprise, she came out crying and everyone in the room was emotional. Nobody knew what was going to happen. It’s a very magical story.’
For her father, Blake, who was not allowed in the delivery room, the process was difficult.
He said, “I remember sitting outside in the hallway, they brought me there for the delivery and while they were in there giving her an epidural, I was pacing the hallway just praying.
The operation was far from easy for Mrs Milby, who suffered a panic attack shortly after they started, but she said it was all worth it when she saw her baby’s face.
She said: ‘They had to give me something to calm me down because I was having a panic attack. I screamed and cried.
‘I was just a wreck, it was terrible.
‘In the back of our minds we were both wondering what was going to happen. However, she shocked us all and proved everyone wrong.
“When I actually saw her I cried even more because I had never seen anything like it before, but I didn’t care what she looked like, I loved her anyway.
“I’d never seen anyone look like that before, so I was shocked to be honest, but grateful at the same time.”
After the birth, Armani and her family were moved more than 100 miles away to Cincinnati for three months to be admitted to a specialized hospital where the baby began to recover.
Mrs Milby said: ‘I struggled really badly with postpartum depression, and I had to shake it off to try to be the strongest person I could be for her and for my other two children.
‘It’s been a rollercoaster ride. It really was a rollercoaster ride and every day I struggle a little bit.’
Armani will undergo surgery later this year, during which doctors will remove additional lymphatic vessels. In the coming years she will have to undergo surgery to remove the extra skin.