Being born again is usually something spiritual, but a little boy from Reading was literally born twice.
Rafferty, who is now eleven weeks old, spent two hours outside of his mother Lucy Isaac’s body when she was only halfway through her pregnancy.
After her routine ultrasound scan at 12 weeks showed signs of ovarian cancer, doctors were worried as their usual options for treatment would be too difficult due to the pregnancy.
They could not wait until Rafferty was born, as it would give more time for the cancer to progress, but the usual keyhole operation was out of the question due to the baby.
There was one operation which could make treatment possible, but it was risky and rarely performed.
It would involve lifting her whole womb out of her abdomen and keeping it warm in sterile cause, so cancerous cells could be accessed and removed behind it.
Lucy and her husband Adam had a difficult decisision to ‘put our faith’ in surgeon Hooman Soleymani Majd, who had done the operation only a handful of times.
This case was even more complex than his previous cases, becasue Lucy’s tumours were Grade II, meaning they had spread to surrounding tissue, the Daily Mail reported.
Special needs teacher Lucy, 32, had the operation in October last year, which needed a team of 15 more medics in theatre including five nurses and three anaesthetics.
Her womb, which was the size of a football, was removed and wrapped in sterile gauze, while still connected to the uterine artery, left fallopian tube, cervix, and umbilical cord which would keep Rafferty safe.
Two medics kept hold of it outside of her body for around two hours, with his heartrate and vitals monitored, before the uterus was placed back in to safely keep growing Rafferty for the rest of the pregnancy.
He was eventually born – for the second time – at the end of January weighing 6lb 5oz.
One of her first visits was to bring baby Rafferty back to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, to meet the surgeon who saved their lives.
Mr Majd said: ‘It felt as if I had met him previously. It was a rare and a very emotional experience for me.’
Rafferty’s dad Adam, a musician who previously appeared on BBC programme The Voice, had been through his own medical problems before this.
A friend donated a kidney to him, and the transplant was carried out in November 2022.
Adam said: ‘To finally hold Rafferty in our arms after everything we have been through was the most amazing moment.’
Lucy said she felt ‘incredibly lucky’ to have been diagnosed so early, before any symptoms appeared.
Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed late, but early diagnosis often means it is more treatable.
It affects around 7,000 women in the UK each year.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
