Most parents are amazed by their children. But 37-year-old Shelagh McAlpine of Glasgow, Scotland, calls her baby a miracle.
McAlpine was rushed the hospital when she was 28 weeks pregnant because she was bleeding heavily, the Daily Mail reports. Doctors told her that her unborn daughter, Mia Rose Storrie, had died in the womb when McAlpine's placenta separated from the wall of her uterus, according to the Lennox Herald.
The medical term is placental abruption, and in severe cases it can deny the fetus oxygen and nutrients, resulting in a still-birth, according to the March of Dimes.
After seven agonizing minutes, doctors found Mia Rose's faint heartbeat. An emergency team performed a desperate Caesarian section that included two blood transfusions for mom, and Mia Rose entered the world 12 weeks premature at 2 pounds 10 ounces, reports the Lennox Herald.
That scare was only the beginning of their medical troubles though. Specialists discovered limb- and life-threatening blood clots in her arm, reports the Herald. Mia Rose required ten blood transfusions and intricate surgery, barely avoiding amputation (she lost the tips of several fingers.) Doctors told McAlpine that no child of Mia Rose's size had survived such a procedure, according to the Sun.
But that wasn't the end of her struggle. According to the Daily Mail Mia Rose was later diagnosed with holes in her heart and lung, and managed to pull through yet again.
Three months later, Mia Rose is home and fully recovered with mom, dad Stephen Storrie, 30, and big brother Reece, 2 1/2.
"She's an absolute miracle," McAlpine told the Mail.
A study of 9.5 million U.S. births published in the American Journal of Epidemiology revealed that abruption happened in 6.5 per 1,000 births. Deaths occurred in 119 per 1,000 abruption cases. But the smaller the baby, the odds of survival spiked downward.
Mia Rose beat the odds.
McAlpine told the Mail: "We are over the moon she’s home and our family is complete."
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