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Wed 7 Apr, 2004 07:53 am
Quote:Woman performs own caesarean to save baby
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Posted: 2:51 PM EDT (1851 GMT)
(Reuters) -- A pregnant woman in Mexico gave birth to a healthy baby boy after performing a caesarean section on herself with a kitchen knife, doctors said on Tuesday.
It is thought to be the first known case of a self-inflicted caesarean in which both the mother and baby survived.
The unidentified 40-year-old, who lived in a rural area without electricity, running water or sanitation that was an eight-hour drive from the nearest hospital, performed the operation when she could not deliver the baby naturally.
She had lost a previous baby due to labor complications.
"She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts...and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried," said Dr R.F. Valle, of the Dr Manuel Velasco Suarez Hospital in San Pablo, Mexico.
Valle recounted the event in a report in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
Before losing consciousness the woman told one of her children to call a local nurse for help. After the nurse stitched the wound with a sewing needle and cotton thread, the mother and baby were transferred and treated by Valle and his colleagues at the nearest hospital.
"This case represents an unusual and extraordinary decision by a women in labour who, unable to deliver herself spontaneously, and with no medical help or resources, decided to perform a caesarean section upon herself," Valle said.
He added that a mother's instinct to save her child can move a woman to perform extraordinary acts but said it would not have been necessary if adequate medical care had been available.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/04/06/health.caesarean.reut/index.html
Holy crap!
Oh boy - people who can do that sort of thing amaze me....
That story certainly puts my hurdles for the day in perspective. Thanks, Fishin'.
I've always been amazed by the things people can do when confronted with life/death situtaions. We hear alot about "civil society" and such but in so many cases raw survival instinct kicks in and takes over.
For some reason this particular case seems more amazing to me than the guy that cut his arm off in Colorado last year. Both are amazing stories of survival but, this one takes the cake (so to speak..).
It was the first known time someone has done this and both the mother & child survived? That says a lot. Either this woman had some knowledge of how to perform the procedure, or she was DAMN lucky.
I dunno, I think cuting off your own arm is at least as hard to do as performing a c-section.
Whoa.
I can see how losing the last baby made her do anything anything anything. And if labor had been going on that long, she probably was already in enough pain that a kitchen knife seemed...
<suddenly getting a visual>
Whoa.
I cant imagine. Then sewed up with cotton thread like you were darning a sock.
I can see where a natural instinct in this case would be more shocking but, not really stunning consider the mother/child angle...and yeah, the fact of the first one known for both to survive..jeesh.
Comparing it to the arm cutter...basic survival gone wild...
I think we all just hope we dont have to make any of those types of decisions..ever.
Yeah, Labor, C Section, Home made stiching, and an 8 hour drive to the hospital...she probably brought the rest of the bottle with her..or wished she did...
Absolutely amazing!
Good for both of them BTW...WOW.
I suspect this may have been done at one time or the other, during Biblical times.
Re: Woman performs own caesarean to save baby
fishin' wrote:Quote:Woman performs own caesarean to save baby
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Posted: 2:51 PM EDT (1851 GMT)
(Reuters) -- A pregnant woman in Mexico gave birth to a healthy baby boy after performing a caesarean section on herself with a kitchen knife, doctors said on Tuesday.
It is thought to be the first known case of a self-inflicted caesarean in which both the mother and baby survived.
The unidentified 40-year-old, who lived in a rural area without electricity, running water or sanitation that was an eight-hour drive from the nearest hospital, performed the operation when she could not deliver the baby naturally.
She had lost a previous baby due to labor complications.
"She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts...and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried," said Dr R.F. Valle, of the Dr Manuel Velasco Suarez Hospital in San Pablo, Mexico.
Valle recounted the event in a report in the International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics.
Quote:Before losing consciousness the woman told one of her children to call a local nurse for help. After the nurse stitched the wound with a sewing needle and cotton thread, the mother and baby were transferred and treated by Valle and his colleagues at the nearest hospital.
"This case represents an unusual and extraordinary decision by a women in labour who, unable to deliver herself spontaneously, and with no medical help or resources, decided to perform a caesarean section upon herself," Valle said.
He added that a mother's instinct to save her child can move a woman to perform extraordinary acts but said it would not have been necessary if adequate medical care had been available.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/04/06/health.caesarean.reut/index.html
Holy crap!
Did the family have a phone to use "to call " the nurse?
Did the village have an EMT crew?
Miller--
I get the impression that we're talking backwoods of Mexico: "a rural area without electricity, running water or sanitation". Quite possibly the "nurse" was trained in basic sanitation and simple health care, but would refuse to take the responsibility of operating--that would be for a doctor.
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