A baby girl with a tumour in her heart has defied medical experts by being born alive and continuing on to live well beyond her first birthday.
Heather Skinner, the mother of Charley-Marie, was advised by doctors to have an abortion because in a scan the baby was shown to have a tumour in her heart that had been previously missed.
Mrs Skinner was told that the baby girl would probably die before she had the opportunity to be born.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Mrs Skinner describes the devastation her family experienced at the news and the expectation of the baby’s imminent death:
“I didn't want an abortion. I wanted nature to take its course. The thought of losing my baby was awful. I didn't know how to deal with it.
“We were left in a room and just cried.
“We bought a moulding kit to make prints of her hands and feet. We also got two identical blankets - one to wrap her in when she was born that we would keep and the other to bury her in.
“... Every day we wondered if today would be the day she died inside me.”
When Charley-Marie was born, however, her heart had found a way of pumping blood around her body despite the tumour, which covers the entire left chamber of her heart. She remains healthy, is now 19 months old and continues to develop normally.
Dr Peter Saunders, CEO of the Christian Medical Fellowship, said:
“I have lost count of the number of times I have heard stories like this. Why is it that the medical profession responds in this knee-jerk fashion recommending abortion for disabilities we would make every effort to treat or correct in a baby after birth?
“Why are not more parents given the opportunity, with proper support, to see their babies’ births through? Why is it that offering surgery, other treatment, or if relevant terminal care, to disabled, sick or dying babies seems no longer to be regarded as a serious option?
“Why has our society instead reached the conclusion that these most vulnerable members of the human race, because they are disabled, sick or dying, have lives that are somehow not worth living? That they are, in other words, better off dead?”
Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, added:
“This is such wonderful news. Well done to Charley-Marie for being such a fighter and well done to her parents for refusing to have an abortion, which would have ended the life of this little girl prematurely.
“Had this couple listened to the doctors’ advice, they would not now have the joy of seeing their little girl growing up against all the odds.”
Sources