i feel so sad reading this... sigh..
this lady's EDD is quite close to mine.. hope the bb can survive..
article from new paper:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,172075,00.html?
SHE was 19 weeks' pregnant when her doctors dropped a bombshell on her - her baby was unlikely to survive long after birth.
Click to see larger image
Ms Tee's husband, Mr Shaun Soong, places his hands on his wife's belly. She is 33 weeks pregnant. -- TNP Picture: KENNETH KOH
It would be better for her to terminate her pregnancy because the foetus had been detected with a congenital heart defect. His heart was missing its pulmonary artery.
Ms Tee Bee Ling and her husband, Mr Shaun Soong, both 33, were devastated.
But they could not bring themselves to abort their baby, a boy whom they have already named Ayden.
Said Ms Tee, a customer service officer: 'We could see the development of our baby's hands, legs, body, head and even his playful side, blowing a bubble and sucking his thumb when we went for the growth scan.
'We decided to keep him and stay positive in the hope that his missing pulmonary artery will develop before his delivery.'
Ms Tee is now 33 weeks pregnant and the doctors have so far not offered much more hope.
'I am hoping to find a doctor who can tell me that he can operate on my son and make him well or find a cure for his condition,' she said.
The one paediatric heart surgeon she had wanted to consult, Dr Sriram Shankar, will be seeing her next week.
She hopes that Dr Shankar, senior consultant cardiothoracic and vascular surgeon at National Heart Centre, KK Women's and Children's Hospital and Gleneagles Medical Centre, can offer her a miracle.
PROGNOSIS BLEAK
Ms Tee, who has consulted doctors at two MOH hospitals, said: 'All the doctors so far have told me that my son will probably die soon after birth.
'One hospital's doctors told me that they will try their best to keep him alive as long as possible. That's not good enough.'
She searched the Internet to find out more about Pulmonary Atresia with multiple Mapcas, which is what her baby has been diagnosed with.
A new study has given her hope.
'US researchers have found out that cells taken from human bone marrow, blood and umbilical cords had grown into working blood vessels in mice,' she said.
These cells formed blood vessels that linked to the mice's circulatory systems, the team at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston reported.
'My baby will have a chance if he can grow another blood vessel,' she said.
BOSTON HOPE
She contacted Children's Hospital in Boston via e-mail.
They have replied and sent her some forms to fill in before proceeding further, she said.
'They face more of these defects in the US and some children have actually survived,' she said.
She hopes to be able to go to the US to take part in the study in the hope of a 'miracle cure' if nothing else can be done here.
But the couple fear they may not have enough savings to do that.
She has downgraded from A class to C class for her delivery.
'Otherwise, we will not have the money required for baby Ayden's operation, if any.
'If we stay in Singapore, I have been told that once he is born, he will be rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where doctors and nurses will try their best to keep him alive,' she said.
Added Ms Tee: 'Ayden has another 40-something days more in my womb before my estimated due date on 14Sep.
'It seems so easy for many pregnant women out there, but definitely not for me and my husband.'
She is haunted by nightmares and suffers many sleepless nights.
'I shun myself from pregnancy conversations with people around me. There is no support group for cases like ours,' she said.
She also does not have family support, having being separated from them for 10 years. She did not want to elaborate on this.
This is her second marriage.
She has two healthy children from her first marriage. Her ex-husband has custody of them.
BLAME WORRY
'I fear that my husband will blame me for this. This pregnancy, we felt, was hard to come by and now the baby is not well,' said Ms Tee.
'We can't even tell my husband's family as his parents are in their mid-70s. We fear that they are unable to take the news and we may encounter worse scenarios,' she said.
She said there had been recent newspaper reports about monetary incentives for parents to boost the birth rate here.
'Many have also suggested longer paternity leave for husbands from one week to a month.
'To many parents, having monetary incentives is surely a sweet bonus.
'But what about welfare or help for parents facing problems such as mine?
'Ayden wants to live on and see this beautiful world. I know it. He's my baby of hope,' she said.
