Doctors Told Mom Her Daughter Would be Born at 23 Weeks And They Wouldn’t Save Her Unless She Tried to Breathe

International   |   Dave Andrusko   |   May 8, 2017   |   8:07PM   |   London, England

Whatever their positions on abortion, many British newspapers are utterly fascinated by stories of premature babies who are born on the cusp of when it would be legal to abort them(24 weeks).

The latest example, which I ran across this weekend, is Zoe Ambrose and her daughter Paige. Their story in incredible on multiple levels.

Back in 2015, Ambrose was surprised to discover she was pregnant at all, much less 22 weeks along.

She told the Mirror

“It was only when I moved house and visited my new GP that I found out I was pregnant. I was shocked.”

Zoe said she was even more stunned to discover she was 22 weeks along.

“It was crazy,” she said. “I was still a size 12 and hadn’t had any morning sickness or cravings. I was totally unprepared.”

But just ten days later she started bleeding at work and was rushed to the hospital where she went into labor. And then devastating news.

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“I’d been in labour for an hour before a doctor told me they didn’t legally have to save my baby because she was going to be born before 24 weeks” and had a small chance of survival, she told The Mirror’s Sophie Evans.

The paediatrician apparently said the hospital would not try to save her daughter unless she “came out trying to breathe.”

But he said they would relieve any suffering.

“He told me my baby only had a 25 per cent chance of survival,” Zoe said.

“I couldn’t let my little girl die without a fight. I begged them to do everything they could to save her life and in the end they agreed.”

(Later in the story, reporter Evans explains, “Lifesaving treatment is offered only if parents ask for it and the paediatrician feels it is appropriate.”)

Ambrose’s labor lasted seven hours–“I was so worried she wouldn’t survive. I prepared for the worst,” Ambrose told Evans–before Paige was born at Dartford’s Darent Valley Hospital in Kent, England.

Paige was, of course tiny and “in her first few days, the little girl had a hemorrhage in her lungs and a bleed on the brain. She was diagnosed as partially sighted in one eye and, at just three weeks old, had to undergo stomach surgery.”

But Paige was nothing if not a fighter. She was transferred to one hospital for specialty care and over the course of more than four months she was transferred between several hospitals.

Paige was discharged on December 16, 2015. Evans ends her story on this very encouraging note.

Today, the tot still needs daily hormone treatment and has an underactive thyroid, but she is regularly checked over by doctors.

“Paige will always suffer with diabetes and tests for her eyes are ongoing, but she is expected to live a long and full life,” Zoe said.

“She is everything to us and the thought that when I first saw her she was as tiny as a £10 note still amazes me.

“This year she is off the oxygen.

“We didn’t know that Paige was coming, but now she’s here we are so grateful for our little miracle.”

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.

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