Georgia’s TiLiyah Dawson, known on TikTok as Ty, was not even out of her teens when she found out she was pregnant in 2023.
She was 19 and had just graduated from Swainsboro High School.
A few weeks later, she went for a routine scan to make sure everything was alright.
That is when doctors told her about a life-altering diagnosis.
“When I first found out about it, I immediately became worried,” Dawson, now 22, recently shared.
Dawson’s unborn child was diagnosed with an extremely rare tumor
A healthcare technician spotted an abnormality during Dawson’s pregnancy ultrasound.
At a follow-up appointment, she received heartbreaking news: her unborn child had a rare condition: a teratoma tumor.
“They informed me that my daughter was developing what’s called a teratoma tumor,” she told Newsweek in September 2026.
According to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, a fetal teratoma is a germ cell tumor made up of different tissue types, such as muscle, bone, and hair.
Dawson’s daughter’s anomalous mass growth occurred in the neck, which is called a cervical teratoma and is mostly benign.
According to University of Michigan Health, it is an extremely rare fetal condition, occurring once in every 20,000 births.
Dawson had an exhausting childbirth experience, but having her family around helped
The diagnosis shattered Dawson, but having grown up in a large family with five siblings, she had the support she needed.
“I was shaky, I was hurt, and I was scared, but my mom always reassured me that everything was going to be okay,” she said.
The day Dawson was to give birth, she was in extreme discomfort and had to be transferred to another hospital for better facilities.
“I had gone in for an ultrasound with my mom and my little sister,” she said. “When I sat up after the ultrasound, I felt severe back pain so intense that I felt like I couldn’t walk.”
She was sent to a hospital in Statesboro, but they could not perform a regular delivery there, as the baby’s tumor had grown significantly and would have caused significant internal damage in Dawson’s birth canal.
Instead, she was sent to another hospital in Augusta, where she was placed under anesthesia, and her daughter was delivered through a cesarean section (C-section).
Tyra had to undergo back-to-back surgeries right after being born
The newborn baby, who was named Tyra, was in critical condition after birth and had to be immediately put in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
Dawson said she did not get to hold her or even see her after birth: “I had to wait until the next day to go to the NICU, and I just remember being so hurt.”
The next day, Dawson and Tyra’s father met their child for the first time, and both were left speechless by the baby’s condition.
“We just stood there,” she offered. “I think he was just as shocked as me, seeing her lying on her side with such a big tumor under her neck.”
Tyra underwent surgery shortly, and doctors were able to remove the tumor, which was thankfully found to be non-cancerous. But things quickly went south, requiring yet another invasive procedure.
“It caused her airways to become floppy, which led to them giving her a tracheotomy to hold her airway open and a feeding tube to help her eat,” Dawson said.
Tyra had several other surgeries, but is doing much better now
Thankfully, baby Tyra survived the ordeal and went home with her mother, but continued to require more medical procedures over the next couple of years.
“There was surgery to place the trach and to place her feeding tube,” Dawson said. “A lot of times she had to be put under anesthesia so doctors could place a camera inside her trachea to see how everything looked and check on her lungs.”
It was “extremely hard” for Dawson to see her child go through so much, but she never lost hope.
“She’s been through so much,” she said. “Seeing my baby made me keep going. I woke up every day and walked to the NICU while I was in a completely different city, with no car, barely eating, and not even healed from my C-section, just to see my baby. I’ll never regret a second of it.”
Sharing an update on Tyra’s current health condition, Dawson said, “She’s doing great now.”
“She still has some checkup appointments and speech therapy, and the hole in her neck is still open, although it’s small and will be closed soon.”
Dawson wants to be a NICU nurse in the future
Now, Tyra is almost at the end of her treatments. She had her tracheostomy and feeding tubes removed in May 2026. She shared the news on her TikTok and was showered with best wishes from her followers.
“I can’t wait for this… I’m going to cry,” one user said. Another wrote, “This makes me so happy for you.”
Talking about her own journey through this, Dawson told Newsweek, “Life changed a lot for me. I’ve never gone through so many emotions in such a short period of time… My life after school has literally been parenting.”
When things eventually settle, Dawson has plans to pursue a career as a NICU nurse: “Being there with my daughter has really inspired me to work in that field.”
Dawson also said that she shared Tyra’s story in the hope that it might help someone else face a difficult situation.
“I hope people take from my baby’s story that not everything has a bad ending,” she said.
“Bless you and your baby girl,” one netizen commented
