This is the story of Ruth and Cait.
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Thank You
My name is Ruth and 18 years ago I almost died having my 4th child.
This was my 4th C-section and at about 30 weeks pregnant I started bleeding.
I was taken to the hospital where they diagnosed placenta praevia. I was kept in for the remainder of my pregnancy leaving my other children, 6-year-old Beth, 4-year-old Rose and 15-month-old Joe at home. Separation was traumatic. My husband and sister and the rest of the family were fantastic.
After further bleeding one Fri morning about 6 weeks before Cait was due an experienced midwife decided she wasn’t happy and got the Dr involved. They decided to deliver my baby and called my Husband.
Cait was born 17 Nov 2000 weighing 5lb 6oz and perfectly healthy. They had been giving me steroid injections every week to develop her lungs in case of an early delivery.
After delivery when my Surgeon tried to deliver the placenta, it came away in lumps and was welded to my womb. After fighting to save my womb for hours and massive blood loss, my Dr finally performed a hysterectomy. I was given 24 units of blood and they told me afterwards I had needed “3 oil changes” of blood. I was bleeding out faster than they could pump it in and in the end, they were giving me Universal blood. I was on the operating table for 6 hours and they told me if it had not been a weekday I would have died for sure because all the experienced staff and my own Dr would not have been around at the weekend.
I woke up in intensive care at about 7 that night to hear the 2 Nurses talking about my hysterectomy ( which I was obviously unaware of) as My Husband had not told me yet. It was an awful shock. I was 31 but am grateful my family was complete at that point. I had a Polaroid photo of my baby Cait by my bed but I didn’t get to meet or hold her for 3 days until I left intensive care.
My Husband sat in the corridor watching all the drama unfold whilst holding our Baby after her delivery. He literally went grey overnight.
We left the hospital together when Cait was 10 days old. The oldest baby on the Ward. I will be forever grateful to the team of doctors, nurses and anaesthetists who saved my life and thank God for our NHS.
My Doctor told me My story would provide him with his after-dinner speeches for years!
That is 18 years ago now and I can still recall everything so clearly.
Thanks for allowing me to share my story
Ruth.
