Surgeons hail ‘miracle baby’

Press, 17 April 1979, Page 6

Surgeons hail ‘miracle baby’

NZPA London A miracle baby boy has been born in a Taunton, Somerset, hospital. Martin Trott was born 11 months after his mother had an operation to remove her womb, the Somerset Area Health Authority confirmed yesterday. The gynaecologist who delivered the baby and performed the sterilisation operation said: “As far as we know, this is the first time in medical history such a birth has been recoftled.” Th* mother, Mrs Alison Trott, aged 23, of Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset, gave birth to 2.89 kg Martin in Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital on March 31. The baby — his arrival was kept secret — was born by caesarean section supported in a layer of muscle as thin as tissue paper. The surgeon, who did not wish to be named, described the birth as “a miracle.”

He said, “Mrs Trott had an abnormal womb. Only half the uterus had developed, the other side simply wasn’t there. “What happened in her case is that the baby developed in a ‘horn’ on which would have been the other side of her uterus had it ever developed. Not only did the baby implant itself but it grew to full term. “This case, where the foetus bad secured itself and simulated a formerly non-existent uterus to support it, is, as far as I and the staff can ascertain, unique.” Mrs Trott and her husband, Len, have two other children, Simon, aged 3, and Richard, aged 2. Mother and baby have now left hospital and are both said to be doing well. The surgeon added: “Martin is a completely normal and healthy baby.” Mrs Trott knew she was pregnant only two weeks before the birth.