Pregnant Mother Almost Died After Her Womb Burst

37 years old Claire Gaylor and her unborn baby almost died after the placenta kept growing until it burst through her womb, filling it with blood as Mrs Gaylor spent five days in a coma while newborn son Cody had to be resuscitated twice after his lungs filled with her blood.

Mrs Gaylor had enjoyed a normal pregnancy until 28 weeks when she started to get horrendous pains which felt like her womb was popping. Doctors initially thought the mother-of-three had bad heartburn and she was given oral morphine while in hospital but when her symptoms got worse, she was rushed to the delivery suite where doctors discovered she had placenta percreta and carried out an emergency caesarean. The life-threatening condition is caused by placenta continuing to grow and can eventually cause the the womb to rupture.

Born at 30 weeks, Cody had to be resuscitated twice after swallowing blood which had collected in her womb. Mrs Gaylor, from Welwyn Garden, Hertfordshire, only met him when he was five days old after coming around from the coma. Mrs Gaylor needed six blood transfusions after suffering internal bleeding as a result of the rupture and doctors had to perform a hysterectomy to save her life.

Mrs Gaylor had this to say about her experience “by the time doctors realised what was happening I was hours from death, I slipped into a coma after being in agonising pain for 10 days. When I woke up I was no longer pregnant with Cody, he had been born via caesarean. My placenta had ripped through the muscles in my womb at 28-weeks and it felt like my womb was popping. My husband, Matt, even named him before I woke up in intensive care five-days later.  Matt was told to say his final goodbyes to both me and Cody at one point, I can't even imagine how awful that must have been for him. We are incredibly lucky to have both survived. “I couldn't believe how much he had been through he was such a little fighter and really is our little miracle. Even doctors were baffled by how we had both survived, so much so that my medical records are now being used to train new doctors who deal with this condition. I couldn't believe how close I had come to losing my life and my baby it's so scary to think that our future could have been snatched away by this rare condition.  We were so grateful that we were able to take our boy home nine-weeks later. We couldn't be more proud of Cody and he is such a little miracle that we feel incredibly lucky that we were able to walk out of that hospital as a complete family”