I was flown to Belgium for surgery and in theatre for five hours
Donna-Marie McCullough and her daughter Maggie.It was five days before Christmas in 2019 and I was 20 weeks pregnant with our second child when a routine scan revealed a hole in her spine and anomalies in her brain.
Then on 20 December, we were invited into the ultrasound room at our local hospital in County Tyrone. The sonographer squeezed cold gel across my stomach and quietly began her work, measuring the foetus’s diaphragm, spine, stomach and brain. It was taking a little longer than it should. “Is everything OK?” I asked.
He gave us three options: termination, surgery after birth or foetal surgery, which would involve taking her out of the womb, operating and placing her back in. The operation had to be done within the month. There were strict NHS criteria and we’d be flown to Leuven, Belgium, for surgery. By late January, we were on the plane. Emotions ran high as we left Erin with her grandparents.There were 30 people in the operating theatre: doctors, students, anaesthetists. They made an incision in my womb, pulled out the baby and irrigated her in a warm bath while they closed the gap in her spine, using a synthetic skin graft.
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