The parents had decided on a therapeutic abortion after learning late about the severe handicap of the fetus. To everyone’s surprise, the baby was born alive.
Fate seems to be beating down on a couple from Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais). At the beginning of July, however, everything was going for the best: the couple was expecting a child for the summer. But at eight months of pregnancy, the medical staff of the Duchenne hospital informs the parents that their future child suffers from malformations which will be the cause of serious handicaps. He proposes that a medical termination of pregnancy (IMG) be performed.
Surgery is scheduled 10 days later. Doctors give the mother two injections, which are believed to be fatal to the fetus. But a few hours later, at the time of delivery, the baby is born alive.
The child is born alive
A shock for the parents, for whom the 10-day wait and the IMG had already been a real nightmare. For doctors too, for whom it was a first. “It’s a rare and distressing situation, the first time you see it. But it has already happened in Lille, ”said the hospital management to The voice of the North, who reports the event.
Another big surprise for doctors and parents: at birth, the baby had fewer disabilities than expected. He drinks and he moves. However, the medical staff remains cautious about his health. “It’s too early to tell,” according to management.
The parents have said they are considering filing a complaint.
Danger to mother or child
Abortion is practiced “when serious reasons endanger the health of the mother or the unborn child”, in particular “if there is a strong probability that the unborn child is suffering from a ‘a particular severity recognized as incurable at the time of diagnosis’, indicates the website of the Health Insurance. It can occur at any time during pregnancy.
Before the onset of labor, sometimes during (between the passage of the head and upper body, and before the first breath), an injection is made into the umbilical cord, or directly into the heart of the fetus. It contains an anesthetic drug and a product causing death. “The success rate is 100% by intracardiac injection, while it is 87 to 95% for the cord injection, explains the side of the National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians. Two cases of children born alive in literature”.
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