The Irish parents of a baby girl who survived her mother's miscarriage and follow-up treatment with the abortion pill have spoken out for the first time.
“She is just a big healthy pudding of a baby,” mother Michelle Hui proudly told The Mirror about her now 18-week-old miracle child Megan.
The 31-year-old from Co. Kildare suffered a devastating miscarriage on her way to work one morning in July 2013, six weeks in to her pregnancy. Hui was taken to Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital, where after five separate scans, doctors confirmed that she had indeed miscarried.
She was given the abortion pill to ensure that nothing was left in her uterus, as this could potentially cause an infection. Though doctors said there was no chance she was still carrying, they had Hui take a pregnancy test, which would reveal if any potentially harmful clots remained.
The pregnancy test was positive, so Hui returned to the hospital for a surgical removal. It was during preparation for this procedure that doctors found themselves stunned and in disbelief – one of the scans showed a heartbeat.
It turned out Hui had been carrying twins, one of which survived the miscarriage.
“The miscarriage and abortion were absolutely horrific,” Hui told The Mirror.
“To find out I had to go in for another procedure, I was devastated.
“But then I saw this little heartbeat, but I thought it couldn’t be right. After all we had been through, I didn’t want to get my hopes up.
“The doctor went out and came back in with a more senior doctor and he did the scan again and he said, ‘you are not going to believe it, we’ve got a heartbeat.’ It was the best feeling ever."
The Hui family, including husband, Ross, and two small children Mya and Noah (four and two, respectively), welcomed their “little miracle,” Megan, on February 25, weighing in at just under six pounds.
Neither Hui's doctors, who did not comment, nor Katherine Hales, spokeswoman for the Association of Radical Midwives, were able to account for Megan's survival.
Spokeswoman Katherine Hales, a midwife of 20 years, told the paper, “It certainly is an amazing story.
“I have very, very occasionally heard of rare cases of a miscarriage of one baby, and then seeing another on the scan.
“But I have never heard of this happening after [abortion pill] mifepristone. I can’t think of a medical reason for it to happen – it is just luck."
One hypothesis is that the blood and clots in Hui’s uterus cast shadows over the surviving twin, making it hard for her to show up on scans.
In any case, the Hui family is delighted. "She's our little miracle girl," Michelle said.
Comments