Sophia Taylor was already a mother to three girls, six year old Saffron, three year old Mia and two years old Sia when she was expecting her fourth child. She went for her regular scan at Brighton’s Royal Sussex County Hospital when the medics said that she had had a miscarriage.
Sophia recalls, “They said, ‘You have had a miscarriage and your baby has died’. They told me to get rid of the baby – but after three children, I knew what being pregnant felt like.”
The scan showed no fetal heartbeat and the medics therefore asked Sophia to take tablets to terminate her pregnancy.
22 years old Sophia was heartbroken, but her intuition told her to wait. She therefore requested for another scan in eight days time.
She refused to listen to her husband Chris too who trusted the doctor’s verdict.
“I even remember Chris saying, ‘Just take the tablets’ because he trusted the doctors. I even started to hate him a bit.”
Miraculously, the second scan revealed the baby was alive!
Baby Bella-Mae was born prematurely and after the first shock, the family had to deal with the second trauma of her struggle for survival as she battled pneumonia and was in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
Fortunately, the baby proved her mother’s instincts right and is now a healthy 6 month old.
“I wanted to call her Lucky! Now she is here, it’s amazing. The staff who delivered Bella-Mae were incredible. But we are still angry.” Says Chris.
Sophia thinks she is a miracle child.
“She is our little miracle. I can’t put her down, she’s so precious. I look at her thinking, ‘If I’d taken the tablets, she wouldn’t be here’. They’d have killed her in four hours.”
Duncan Selbie, head of NHS trust has apologised to the couple and has ordered a probe into the hospital where at least 6000 scans take place annually.
He said, “Human error of this sort is extremely unusual.”
– Atula, Staff Writer
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The exact same thing happened to me – but it was with my first pregnancy. It was an assisted (IUI) pregnancy and they were tracking my hcg which was absurdly low (but in the range of pregnant!) and they told me there was no viable pregnancy and that I should take pills to clear my uterus to start a new cycle. I refused and 7 days later they were shocked to see the heartbeat of the little guy (who is now 8!)
It’s important to remember that the ultrasound scanner originated as a ship builder’s tool for finding cracks in hulls. It was never originally intended to scan life. There is little to no warning issued about the effects of localised superheating caused by the scan, damage to hormones or any dosage recorded.
Friends of ours were told that they should consider termination as their unborn son had Down’s Syndrome – they refused and were delighted when a healthy baby girl was born instead.
Sadly, that comment is false. Human error of that magnitude happens often. I don’t understand why the thought first went to methotraxate (I’m assuming that is the “pills” they are referring to.) Why not just have the mom wait? Nature usually takes her course.
Could it be because she was a young mother with a slightly larger than average family? Hmmmm….maybe even larger than that medical professional likes to see? That is also not uncommon.
I’m so glad you trusted your intuition and are holding your precious daughter.