Born with a foot in his brain
Saturday 11th April 2009
It was one of those statements that leaves you wondering if you've heard right. 'You've found something in our baby's brain?' I spluttered. 'We've detected a mass,' the doctor repeated. My husband, Manuel, 36, and I exchanged confused looks. Our baby wasn't even born yet. How on earth could they have found a mass in his brain? 'It's shown up on the ultrasound scan,' the doctor explained. 'Is it serious?' Manuel asked. 'It might be,' the doctor nodded. 'We need to get the baby out so we can run more tests. The mass could be fluid or it could be a tumour.' A tumour? Cancer? I was a week past my due date, so we'd come to hospital for a scan, but this wasn't how it was supposed to be.
That evening, our little boy, Sam, was finally delivered by emergency Caesarean section. I wasn't able to give birth naturally, because the umbilical chord was wrapped around his body, causing his heart rate to drop. 'He's beautiful,' I smiled, as the midwife laid him in my arms. 'Perfect,' Manuel agreed. A healthy 8lb 6oz, his cheeks were rosy and chubby. Maybethe doctors had got it wrong about his brain? We spent our first night as a family in a cramped hospital room, Sam in his cot, me in bed and Manuel curled up on the floor. Next morning, a nurse came to collect Sam for an MRI scan. 'See you soon, sweetheart,' I smiled, kissing his soft fuzzy head.
An hour-and-a-half later, Manuel had nipped home for a shower and I was in bed, waiting for Sam to be brought back, when my bedside phone started ringing. It was the doctor. 'There's definitely something in Sam's brain,' he said. 'We're not sure what it is, but we have a surgeon on standby…' 'Oh my God!' I panicked. 'A brain surgeon?' 'Yes, I'm afraid we need to remove the mass,' the doctor said. I burst into hysterical tears. How could this be happening? Sam was the baby Manuel and I had thought we'd never have. It had taken us five years to conceive. We couldn't lose him now. When Manuel arrived back, he found me clutching Sam, tears dripping down my face. 'Something's wrong with his brain,' I wailed.
That afternoon, Sam was transferred to the Memorial Children's Hospital, Colorado. I wasn't well enough to go with him, but Manuel and my dad, Jim, followed the ambulance in their cars. After a sleepless night, I asked my doctor to discharge me, despite being in pain.'I need to be with Sam,' I begged. Thankfully, he agreed. When I got to the hospital, we asked the chaplain to christen Sam before he was taken down to surgery. 'This wasn't what I'd imagined our baby's christening to be like.' I cried, gazing around the sterile hospital room. 'I love you, Sam,' I whispered, when a nurse came to take him away, past the line of relatives who'd come to wish him well. 'Take care, Angel,' my mum, Helen, whispered. 'Goodbye darling,' Manuel's mum, Susan, said hoarsely. 'See you soon,' her husband, Paul, added, fighting tears. But none of us knew whether we'd see our little boy alive again.
Even if he survived, there was a very real chance he could have cancer, and if that happened, he was too tiny for chemotherapy. With Sam gone, the anger finally came. 'He's 3 days old,' I sobbed. 'He should be with me, not having his skull cut open. He's just a baby.' No one knew what to say. Three hours of agonising silence later, and one of the surgeons, Dr Robert Kiley, came to see us. 'He's a little trooper,' he smiled. 'We've removed the mass and he's doing well.' Relief rippled through the room. Sam had overcome the first hurdle. But as Dr Kiley ushered us into a private room, something told me it wasn't over yet. 'There's no easy way to tell you this,' Dr Kiley said. 'It's very unusual.'
Just get on with it! I thought.'The mass seems to be a teratoma, a type of tumour made up of bodily matter,' he said. 'Usually, we'd find teeth or hair, but what we found in Sam's brain is different.' 'What did you find?' I demanded. 'A foot,' he said. The word hung in the air. 'You found a foot in my baby's brain?' I spluttered. 'Yes, a foot, part of a hand, and a bit of thigh,' he nodded. Dr Kiley explained it could indicate Sam had been a twin and, rather than developing normally, the other baby had died and become embedded in Sam's head. 'When we opened up Sam's head, the foot just popped out,' Dr Kiley said. 'It was as though another baby was being born feet-first out of his head. Your son really is a miracle.' I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or throw up. 'We have a photo,' Dr Kiley said. 'Would you like to see it?' 'I just want to see my son,' I said. 'I don't think I could cope with seeing that picture.'Up in intensive care, Sam looked so peaceful, despite the 1in wound snaking across his cheek.
Amazingly, four days later, he was well enough to leave hospital. Even though the worry of cancer was still hanging over us, it was so lovely to have him home. But once the papers and TV stations got wind of our story, they camped out on our doorstep, asking for a look at our medical marvel. I refused to put him on show. But one day, I forced myself to look at the picture of his brain.'Urgh,' I said, recoiling in disgust. The doctors hadn't been exaggerating, it really was a foot, complete with five toes. It was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. A few days later, we got Sam's test results back. Thankfully, they ruled out cancer. We started to think differently about speaking to the press. Perhaps telling Sam's story could help other families. So we gave our permission for the doctors to release the photo of the foot and gave interviews to the local paper. Soon, people all over the world knew about our son.
Five months on, Sam's a happy boy with a cheeky smile. 'He's so chubby, he looks like the Michelin Man,' Manuel said one day. The name stuck and now, everyone calls him that. At first, his right side was weak as a result of his surgery, but regular physio has helped a lot and doctors say he should develop normally. Worryingly, a recent scan detected a cyst, which has grown in the space left by the foot. There's a chance he'll need more surgery, but we're trying to stay positive. In fact, we have a file of news cuttings to show him when he's older, to prove how special he is.