Suffering from stomach pain, a woman discovered she had an abdominal pregnancy, with the fetus outside the uterus. Against all odds, she gave birth to a living child.
A 37-year-old woman presented to the emergency room of CHU Sud Réunion, suffering from persistent abdominal pain and bloating for ten days. Having already given birth to two children and with no history of surgery or illnesses, her situation was mysterious. Doctors, who reported his case in the New England Journal of Medicine, undertook a series of tests to identify the cause of his ailments.
During these investigations, a uterine ultrasound was performed, revealing an absence of fetus or embryo in the uterus, despite a thickened endometrium indicating pregnancy. An abdominal-pelvic scan was then carried out remotely by Imadis, a Lyon-based company specializing in emergency radiology. Dr. Guillaume Gorincour, an on-call physician at Imadis, recommended an MRI, which ultimately revealed a 23-week ectopic pregnancy, with the fetus and placenta located in the patient’s abdominal cavity.
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Miraculous birth despite the risks
Ectopic pregnancies, especially abdominal ones, are extremely rare and dangerous. The Daily Mail reports that the survival rate of a fetus in such circumstances is only 10%. Nevertheless, in this exceptional case, the fetus was alive and developed to a successful birth. Doctors decided to prolong the pregnancy as long as possible to maximize the baby’s chances of survival.
At 29 weeks gestation, the baby was delivered through an abdominal incision, and the placenta was surgically removed 12 days later. The newborn was taken care of in the neonatal intensive care unit with an Apgar score of 6 at 5 minutes. The mother left the hospital after 25 days, and the child was allowed to leave after two months. Although the patients were subsequently lost to follow-up, this birth remains an exceptional testimony to human resilience and medical advancement.
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A fashionista at heart, Dora has always dreamed of writing for fashion. After having accomplished her dream and much more, she redirects herself towards current affairs, whether celebrity,…