14 DAY TRIAL // A 36-year-old expectant mother from Great Britain was just moments away from taking a hospital abortion pill, but the maternal instinct kicked in just in time and she refused to give up hope on her unborn child after doctors told her that the baby had died.
Hazel Wiggins, an 11-week-pregnant mother, went to Hexham General Hospital after suffering from an unexpected bleeding. The doctors performed a check and told her that the foetus would have to be aborted as there were no signs of life. They recommended she take abortion pills to terminate the pregnancy.
However, Wiggins, who is also mum to a 10-year-old boy, could not accept her unborn baby was dead and asked for another ultrasound scan. An indefinable feeling was telling her not to give up so soon.
“They kept saying that I needed to take the tablets and I said that I didn’t want to. I told them I wanted another scan. It went on for about 20 minutes,” the woman says, as reported by Daily Mail.
Eventually, she convinced midwives to run another scan. To everyone's amazement, the second check revealed the baby was alive.
The nurse who performed the scan was shocked when she saw what was on the screen. She reportedly told the mother, “I have a baby here who is jumping all over the place, the baby is alive.”
Wiggins gave birth to Amelia on January 13, at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. The baby girl was born with respiratory problems and with her liver and bowel on the outside of her body, but she is recovering after surgery to correct the complications and her health is slowly improving.
Northumbria NHS Healthcare Foundation Trust has apologized for the distress caused to Hazel and her family. The incident led to a legal settlement, which was resolved out of court.
The case of Hazel Wiggins and baby Amelia at Hexham General Hospital has led to a change in NHS policy regarding pre-natal scans. Now, all expectant mothers who have a scan that shows their unborn baby has died will be automatically offered a second scan.
“We apologise wholeheartedly for unnecessary distress. We have fully investigated the circumstances surrounding this unusual incident and made some important changes to ensure that two scans are always carried out as a matter of course whenever there are concerns about the viability of the foetus,” declared Dr. Eliot Sykes, clinical director of emergency surgery and elective care at NHS.