TAMPA, Fla. -- A baby's airway is blocked, and doctors are racing against the clock to save her life. They used a unique procedure to make it happen, delivering only part of the baby, and working to open her airway while she's still connected to the mother.

Here is inside the operating room for this medical breakthrough.

Enjoying an afternoon snack is a major milestone for Anna Robinson.

"This is huge,” Susan Robinson said. “This is a special bottle that helps me squeeze milk into her mouth, so she can swallow."

But Anna was amazing her mother even before she was born. Halfway through the pregnancy, doctors spotted large fluid-filled tumors wrapped around the baby's neck. She wouldn't be able to breathe outside of the womb.

"Into the delivery, we were prepared for the worst,” Susan recalled. “I mean my husband and I knew that when we showed up that day that might be the last day that she was alive, so we knew as we said goodbye, I would go to sleep, and maybe, I would not see her alive."

A team of 20 doctors at Tampa General Hospital packed an OR to do an EXIT procedure. It's a C-section where they only deliver the baby's head, one shoulder, and one hand.

"So, the baby's still remaining on the support of the umbilical cord and placenta while part of the baby's still out,” Valerie E. Whiteman, MD maternal fetal medicine at Tampa General Hospital/USF in Tampa, Fla., explained.

While the baby's still receiving oxygen from the mother, the team has a 90-minute window to put a tube down the baby's throat and open up an airway.

"With this circumstance, it took us seven minutes to secure the airway and then proceed with the rest of the delivery,” Dr. Whiteman said.

Other surgeries followed to remove the rest of the Anna's tumors. Doctors say her future looks bright.

"She is beautiful, just the most adorable, sweetest baby you ever met," Susan said.

A baby who has beat the odds before she took her first breath.

Anna may need speech therapy because of the scar tissue near her vocal chords, but doctors say she's meeting all of her developmental milestones. The team of doctors spent more than two months planning for the innovative procedure. The EXIT approach can be used for babies with many congenital upper airway obstruction lesions.

In-Depth Doctor's Interview: Valerie E. Whiteman, M.D., from Tampa General Hospital and USF, talks about the procedure.

What does Exit stands for? What does EXIT mean?

DR: WHITEMAN: EXIT stands for ex-utero intrapartum therapy. It basically means providing airway for the fetus before the baby is fully delivered. What we do with an EXIT procedure is proceed as if we are doing a regular Caesarean section except for a number of things. Number one, so that we have enough uterine relaxation, the mother is asleep, so she has general anesthesia, and the anesthesiologist provides additional medication so that the uterus can be very relaxed. When we do the incision on the uterus we use a specific stapling device so that there is minimal blood loss, and we deliver the baby from the head up to the shoulders and one of the hands. At that point, what we do as the obstetrician, I step out of the way and allow the neonatologist, which is a physician that’s sub-specialized managing children with special needs and newborns with special needs, actually do the intubation for the baby and provide an airway, and once that airway is secured, then I step back in or the obstetrician steps back in and delivers the rest of the baby.

Can you tell us the purpose behind delivering the shoulder, one hand and the head and not the full delivery like you would in a normal delivery?

DR: WHITEMAN: The idea is to provide an airway, but not let the baby breathe on its own if there is any kind of an obstruction. With this circumstance, the baby had a really large tumor on the neck, and that was potentially impinging the baby’s ability to breathe once it was born. The goal of this surgery is to actually deliver the baby’s head first and provide the airway, and of course, it’s the head up to the neck to about the top of the chest so that we’re able to monitor the baby’s heart rate during the entire procedure of securing an airway. And one of the hands is delivered so we can put a pulse oximeter on to make sure the baby is getting enough oxygen during the procedure.

Is there a pretty strict timeframe in which that airway needs to be found?

DR: WHITEMAN: In the literature, it’s been documented to have as long as 30 minutes plus for the airway to be secured. With this circumstance it took us 7 minutes to secure the airway and then proceed with the rest of the delivery. What really is important is making sure that the baby is getting enough oxygen during that period of time because the baby is still getting oxygen through the umbilical cord, and we’re not delivering the placenta or umbilical cord, so the baby is still remaining on the support of the umbilical cord and placenta while part of the baby is still out.

What are you trying to do exactly with this?

DR: WHITEMAN: While the baby’s on the inside, when the young woman is pregnant, when the baby’s on the inside, that fetus is getting its oxygen through the umbilical cord and placenta, so the goal of doing the EXIT procedure is to keep the baby receiving its oxygen through the placenta without disrupting it. Once we know that the baby’s able to breathe with the assistance of the airway that is secured by the neonatologist, then we can deliver the baby and have no break and no lapse and having appropriate oxygen supply for the baby.

How much planning has to go into something like this?

DR: WHITEMAN: Major planning.

Is a large tumor the only reason you would do this or is there another circumstance?

DR: WHITEMAN: The reason to do this, is what we call CHAOS, which stands for congenital high airway obstructive syndrome, and a tumor like this is just one of the reasons for this to be performed. Other reasons would be if the trachea is very small. We could also provide EXIT procedure to deliver the baby and provide the airway during the delivery.

At what time in the pregnancy did you start thinking that you may do this procedure?

DR: WHITEMAN: We were following Anna very closely throughout the entire pregnancy and we realized that this mass was getting larger and larger and it was located in front of the neck. We started planning the EXIT procedure for her over the summer. So we started planning for this in August and the baby was delivered in October.

Is it a pretty rare procedure?

DR: WHITEMAN: To my knowledge, this is the first one that was done at Tampa General even though I’ve done one before and some of the other people on the team have done it before. But it’s not a very common procedure at all. It requires a team of maternal fetal medicine, neonatology, pediatric surgery in case there’s any difficulty, as well as very high tech anesthesiologists, and not every hospital has the capability to provide this.

Is there another option if the patient wasn’t near a center that would be able to do this? Is there an alternative to this?

DR: WHITEMAN: It would be a very risky delivery if she had not had this procedure done because of certainly the key part of any kind of effort to keep anyone stable is maintaining an airway, and without an airway being secured, who knows what kind of outcome we would have had here.

Once the airway is secured and you take the reins again, is it like a normal Caesarean?

DR: WHITEMAN: Once the airway is secured, then delivering the baby is just like a regular Caesarean all over again.

What was the outcome of the surgery?

DR: WHITEMAN: I was tickled pink to see that they got the air, the airway was secured on the very first attempt, and because we had done enough practice on our neonatology team actually went through every possible scenario for securing the airway beforehand. So I’m not surprised that we had a good outcome with this. In fact, we had anticipated a good outcome with this.

Is there a moment when people hold their breath in here?

DR: WHITEMAN: The most interesting part of this procedure from doing it is really when we deliver the head and deliver the arm of the baby and then step back and wait for the intubation. There’s been many times I’ve seen our neonatologist have to intubate a baby, and because of the anticipation with this, this felt like it was the longest one. However, because they’ve got such wonderful technique, actually it took them no time at all to achieve an airway with this baby.

Her prognosis is just a surgery ahead to remove the tumor?

DR: WHITEMAN: Right. Dr. Purdis is managing the newborn portion of this. He’s a wonderful pediatric surgeon with many years of experience, and if I had to have a baby requiring a kind of pediatric surgical intervention, I’d certainly entrust him with taking care of my child. I guess that’s as good a recommendation as you’re going to get from another healthcare provider. I know he’s done one surgery to remove part of the tumor, and he’s scheduled to take the rest of this out, of the high drama out shortly.