Heartwarming twist for mum told by doctors to 'abort and start again'
A mum who was told to abort her daughter and “start again” by a doctor when her unborn child was diagnosed with a rare tumour has proved medical experts wrong - as her beautiful daughter is thriving.
Wendy Wong, 41, from Newcastle, England, says medics told her that her daughter had been conceived with a “bad egg” when she was diagnosed with a Cycstic Hygroma - a condition that causes the build up of fluid-filled cysts - before birth.
Her daughter Savannah was born with a tumour on her neck the same size as her head.
But after successful treatment, Savannah is now a healthy and happy five year old.
Wendy, and husband Alex, 38, who live in Nevada, USA, are sharing their story to show parents that Cycstic Hygroma - which is estimated to affect one per cent of newborn babies - is a manageable condition.
Cystic Hygroma is a collection of fluid-filled sacs, or cysts, that result from a malformation of the lymphatic system, usually detected before birth.
“When I was 22 weeks pregnant I saw a doctor who told me there was a lump on my baby’s neck and he would need a couple of weeks to do some research on what it could be,” mother Wendy Wong recalled.
“He made us sit for two weeks, when we went back to the doctor and he told me to abort our baby at 24 weeks, and that we could 'start again.'
"I told him that I could feel her moving inside me; there was no way I could go through with a termination,” Ms Wong said.
“He said there’s two options, I could class the baby as a bad egg, or go through with it and she’ll either die inside me after birth or on the operating table.
The brave decision to keep their unborn baby
The parents did some research and sought a second opinion.
"We saw another doctor who told us that he'd seen much worse cases than ours, so we were determined to fight it,’ Ms Wong said.
“There are a lot of single mums and families that think they can’t have a baby with this condition and I want to tell them that this condition is manageable and to look at my daughter for proof.”
After two months in hospital, Savannah could go home due to an experimental drug called Sirolimus, a liquid based oral medicine which is added to Savannah's milk which drains the cysts in her body.
Savannah celebrated her 5th birthday on June 24, 2019, and is thriving.
The condition occurs in one percent of births and if detected too late can end in only a 10 per cent chance of survival.
In Savannah's case, the tumour that grew on her neck was at first believed to have been operable, but two days after her birth she was diagnosed with Cystic Hygroma.
A doctor that told her parents that she was a "bad egg".
After just a month, Savannah was back at home with her family and has since grown up to be a perfectly capable little girl.
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