Happy family: Ross and Jodi with two-year-old Cooper
Jodi Stones was just weeks away from giving birth to her first child when her world was turned upside down.
At 33 weeks pregnant
, the nursery nurse started getting bad stomach pains and collapsed at
her home in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, while her husband Ross
was on night shift.
Jodi, now 31, managed to scramble to the phone and called her sister Sarah-Jayne who came straight to her aid, Belfast Live reported .
She was blue-lighted to the Causeway Hospital in Coleraine when everything took a turn for the worst.
Doctors discovered Jodi's uterus had ruptured and she was
bleeding internally - but in another shocking twist surgeons later
discovered the reason her uterus had ruptured was because she had TWO.
It was a race against time to save Jodi's life after safely delivering her premature son Cooper, who weighed just 3lb 7oz.
Medical staff feared the worst and told her husband and sister to be prepared they may lose Jodi that night.
But thanks to blood donors across Northern Ireland, Jodi is now fighting fit and a doting mum to her now two-year-old son.
Speaking
to Belfast Live, Jodi said: "When I got to Coleraine his heartbeat
started to dip and one of the other doctors came in and she realised
that my uterus had ruptured and I was bleeding internally so they
whisked me off to theatre.
"When they got me into theatre, the
doctors told me they do not know how I survived it. It was only the
surgeon had been called in for a previous section and was there. I had
lost that much blood, if they had had to page somebody and I had waited
another 10 minutes I would have been dead."
But then, in another dramatic twist, as surgeons worked to
save Jodi's life, they discovered the reason her uterus had ruptured was
because she had two. This is a very rare condition called Uterus
Didelphys.
"That's why it ruptured that night, he had outgrown the uterus he was in," said Jodi.
"I
had been in hospital from 20 weeks with these pains and feeling unwell
and had been scanned from head to toe and had eight baby scans and other
scans, but no one had picked it up that I had two uterus, this rare
condition.
"I had lost nearly three litres of blood I think and
they had come out and told my husband and sister. He [Ross] had come and
they were going to deliver baby, he had no idea what was going on, and
they came out and said they had delivered a wee boy and he was alive but
said prepare yourself, we don't think your wife is going to make it.
"I
had lost that much blood and they could not stop the ruptures, as fast
as they were repairing one another was coming. I had a lot of blood
transfusions that night, I think after 45 minutes they managed to stop
the bleeding but I had a lot of blood transfusions.
"If it was not for those blood transfusions I would not be here today to be a mummy to my wee boy."
Jodi
spent three days in intensive care while baby Cooper was transferred to
Antrim Area Hospital to be cared for in a special maternity unit.
"He was such a fighter, they said it was a miracle I survived it and that he is so well," she said.
Now, almost three years after the terrifying ordeal on
January 9, 2013, Jodi is back on her feet and little Cooper is looking
forward to celebrating his third birthday with his parents in the new
year.
Jodi said she wanted to share her experience to encourage others to donate blood.
"I
had never given much thought to it, you think things like that won't
happen to you and you go about your daily life but they really do and if
it wasn't for those people who donated their blood I would not be here
today. I am just so grateful to them," she said.
Jodi added: "If I could encourage just one person to donate then it has been worthwhile."
As the festive season approaches, Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service is asking you to 'Give the Gift of Life'.
During
December more than 2,000 patients in Northern Ireland will need blood
and/or blood products. A patient receiving your gift of life could be a
child with leukaemia, a mother during childbirth, a father with cancer
or someone in a critical condition following an accident. Also, there
are many people throughout Northern Ireland whose lives depend on
receiving regular blood donations to help them cope with a variety of
other conditions.
NIBTS is appealing for people to come forward
over the coming weeks as blood donation can drop because of Christmas
shopping, seasonal colds and flu, weather conditions and other
activities in the run up to festive period.
Paul McElkerney, a
spokesman for the service, said: “We do depend very much on our regular
blood donors and would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank
you to all of them but if you have never considered giving blood, now
would be a great time to start.
“You may never know that person whose life you will have saved but they and their families will be so grateful to you.”
For more information on donating, visit their website by clicking here.
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