Premature Babies

 

Ironically, scissors save unborn “miracle” baby’s life

By Dave Andrusko
Editor’s note. We ran this story previously but a couple of pro-life sites picked up on the story of Maddalene Douse in the aftermath of the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It is such a powerful story on so many different levels, I thought you might enjoy reading (or re-reading) it.

Maddalena Douse, with parents Kate and Renato

Sometimes the phrase “miracle baby” exaggerates how fortunate a baby is to be alive. Not in the case of Maddalena Douse, who was born at 23 weeks.

Nicole Fabian-Weber, of the Daily Mail, writes that Maddalena is the youngest preemie to survive in the U.K. Miracle enough, right? Check this out.

“See, current guidelines in England don’t suggest providing active care for babies born 22 weeks and 6 days or before,” Fabian-Weber writes. “But when they put Maddalena on the scale, and realized that she weighed 1 pound — the minimum weight for a baby to be considered ‘viable’ — they fought to keep her alive.”

It was only when she was safely on a ventilator that doctors discovered Maddalena had actually only weighed 382g. Guidelines state a baby must be 1lb to be considered viable.
Photo credit: Connors Brighton.

Only the baby didn’t weigh 1 pound. Maddalena only seemed to weigh that much because a pair of scissors had accidentally been left on the scale! The doctors at Royal Sussex Hospital did not discover their “error,” the Sun’s Jane Atkinson reported, until she was safely on the ventilator.
As wonderful as this miracle was for Kate Douse and her husband, Renato, unfortunately, the baby’s twin sister, Isabella, died a few weeks after the girls were born.
All indications are that Maddalena will grow up healthy. “She now weighs 5½lbs and is getting stronger by the day,” Kate Douse told the Atkinson. “She’s our little miracle and we’re so glad to have her home in time for Christmas.”

Mrs. Douse added, “We never thought we’d ever bring Maddalena home.”