London: You may call it a miracle — a baby saved his mother's life before he was even born just by kicking in the womb only to alert doctors of a tumour inside.
Mother-to-be Claire feared she was losing him 18 weeks into the pregnancy. But, doctors discovered the “miscarriage” was actually a tumour of the womb — which her unborn son had kicked free, the News of the World reported.
Claire, 26, was advised to have an abortion immediately so her cancer could be treated. But she said, “I couldn't end my baby's life when he had just saved mine.
“The cancer had been growing for months — if he had not kicked the tumour it would have carried on growing until it was too late. I knew if anything happened to me, this baby would be loved, so I was willing to take that risk.”
She continued with the pregnancy until 26 weeks, when the tumour had trebled in size. Then doctors told beautician Claire and her partner Harry they had to deliver her baby then — but gave him only a 40% chance of survival.
Little Harry weighed just a little over two pounds when he was born at St Thomas's Hospital in London. Claire said, “He was so tiny. We were just praying he would pull through. They showed him to me and then quickly rushed him down to intensive care.”
The boy is a healthy two-yearold. “We were both allowed home on the same day, which was lovely. I feel like the luckiest mum in the world, for both my son and I to have survived,” Claire said. Robert Music of Jo's Trust said, “This really is quite remarkable. We have never come across anything like this before. Claire was extremely lucky it was detected in this way.”
