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Miracle of baby 'born twice' after mother undergoes life-saving womb operation
24 April 2025, 16:22
A mother who undertook an "extreme surgery" to have her womb and unborn child removed from her body has praised the doctors who saved her and her son's life.
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Lucy Isaac's dreams of being a mother came crashing down when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, 12 weeks into her pregnancy.
Her diagnosis meant she would need to undertake a 'risky' life-saving operation in which her womb, containing her unborn child, would be lifted from her abdomen.
The five-hour operation had only been carried out a handful of times across the world and posed a severe risk to the life of the 32-year-old and her son.
But a team of 15 doctors at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford managed to successfully remove the cancerous cells on both ovaries behind the womb.
They then safely returned Ms Isaac's womb and the child to her body and 29 weeks later, little Rafferty was born.
Speaking to LBC News, the special needs teacher from Oxfordshire heaped praise on the hospital staff, saying: 'The skill and the expertise that the medics had to enable us to not only survive the surgery, but for my pregnancy to continue relatively normally until 37 weeks when Rafferty was unborn.
'It's just astounding. And we feel, even in the midst of quite a horrible situation, just so immensely lucky.'
Doctors decided to carry out the surgery because they felt they couldn't wait until the baby was born to treat Ms Issac's tumour, as the cancer would likely spread.
Her pregnancy was also too far advanced to allow surgeons to perform standard keyhole surgery.
But despite the immense risk to her and her son's life, Ms Isaac said she never doubted anything because she knew she was in "the most capable hands".
Speaking about the events that led up to the critical surgery, she said: "So I think when they initially explained everything, it was all at a time where my brain was still very much processing what was going on.
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"I don't think I really fully took it in until the morning of the surgery when my surgeon came to me and said, now when I take him out, I'll wrap him in heat blankets and he won't know that he's out of your body.
"And it then really hit us that that's, you know, how extreme the surgery was going to be. I never for one second doubted that we were just in the most capable hands and we were going to be exceptionally well looked after because we have been from start to finish.
"Our whole time in hospital has been an immensely scary time, but it has also been incredibly positive because of the care that we've received."
Throughout the operation, Ms Isaac's womb was held by two members of the team, whilst it stayed attached to her left fallopian tube and cervix.
To maintain a supply and oxygen to the baby, the womb also remained connected to the uterine artery.
Now that the "gorgeous little" Rafferty has arrived into the world safe and sound, weighing 6lb 5oz (3kg), his mother will undergo completion surgery next month.
Ms Isaac and her husband Adam hope this will be the last time she needs to go under the knife, but even if it is not the couple knows she will be well looked after regardless.
"We hope that the next surgery will then be an end to it, but if it's not, then I know that we will continue to be looked after and I've got everything to live for now, Ms Issac said.
"It's amazing. He is the most wonderful, gorgeous little boy. And I think, because my husband and I have both had such significant health issues over the last five years, for the both of us to look at him, to look at Rafferty and see him here and healthy, is everything that we could possibly ever have wished for."
Ovarian cancer affects 7,000 women every year in the UK and more than 4,000 women a year die from it, according to Cancer Research UK.
