Preemie Survives Fall Onto Train Tracks

[Madre]

AHMADABAD, India (AP) - A newborn baby girl fell through the toilet in a moving train and onto the tracks moments after her mother prematurely gave birth, surviving nearly two hours before being found, relatives said Thursday.

The child's mother, who uses the single name Bhuri, was traveling with relatives on an overnight train when she went to the bathroom shortly before midnight Tuesday and unexpectedly gave birth to a baby girl, said Arjun Kumar, her brother-in-law.

"Later, she fell unconscious and the baby fell through the toilet," he continued. "Two stations later, we knocked at the door."

Bhuri opened the door, soaked in blood.

"When we asked her about what happened, she said the baby had fallen through onto the tracks," Kumar said.

Toilets on Indian trains usually have holes that open directly onto the tracks, and there were no indications Thursday that authorities doubted Bhuri's story or planned to investigate the incident.

Kumar said that after finding Bhuri, relatives pulled the train's emergency brake and told railway officials what had happened. A search was quickly organized, and guards at one of the stations the train had passed soon found the baby.

"She was on the rail track for almost 1 1/2 to two hours," said Dr. Gautam Jain, a pediatrician at Rajasthan Hospital in Ahmadabad, in the western state of Gujarat, where the baby and mother were taken.

The child, who has not yet been named, was eight to 10 weeks premature and weighed only 3.22 pounds, Jain said. She had a low heart rate and body temperature.

"We do not expect such children to survive," Jain said.

[rachel]

Got one too:


Last Updated: Monday, 4 February 2008, 16:42 GMT

E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Unborn twins 'kicked out cancer'

Michelle Stepney's daughters were born healthy
A mother who found she had a tumour while pregnant was saved by her unborn twins' kicking, doctors have said.
Michelle Stepney developed a tumour but was only diagnosed with cervical cancer when she was taken to hospital with a suspected miscarriage.

But doctors found her twins' kicking had dislodged the tumour.

Mrs Stepney, from Cheam, south-west London, refused to undergo chemotherapy and a hysterectomy which would have meant the termination of her twins.

She has been nominated for a Woman of Courage Award by Cancer Research UK.

"I couldn't believe it when the doctors told me that the babies had dislodged the tumour," she said.


I owe my life to my girls, and that's why I could have never agreed with a termination
Michelle Stepney
"I'd felt them kicking but I didn't realise just how important their kicking would turn out to be."

Mrs Stepney, who also had a five-year-old son called Jack, said she opted to have her life-saving operation after the twins were born.

"I owe my life to my girls, and that's why I could have never agreed with a termination," she said.

"It was a very difficult decision to make. We wanted to make sure what we did was right by Jack but we did not want to do what was wrong by the girls."

'Kept me strong'

Doctors at the Royal Marsden Hospital gave Mrs Stepney limited chemotherapy.

The twins, Alice and Harriet, were delivered by caesarean section 33 weeks into the pregnancy.

They were healthy but born without hair because of the cancer treatment.

Mrs Stepney had a hysterectomy four weeks later, and has been given the all-clear.

She said she had relied on the support of her husband Scott, 36.

"I couldn't have got through it without him," she said, adding: "The twins were also a huge support. They kept me strong throughout it all."

Cancer Research UK's women-only fundraising event Race for Life - in which women are sponsored to walk, jog or run 5km - takes place between 3 May and 31 July.

[irishmum2boys]

wow, both those stories give me chills!! Amazing!!