Posted on 03/22/2008 10:02:23 PM PDT by kingattax
A woman of 57 with suspected ovarian cancer was in fact expecting her first baby.
Susan Tollefsen feared the worst when she was sent to hospital for a scan on her growing bump.
But the sonographer told her: "Congratulations, you're almost 30 weeks pregnant."
She will become one of Britain's oldest mothers when she has a caesarean section next week. The remarkable story, which she describes as an Easter miracle, follows-several years of attempts to have a baby by IVF treatment at foreign clinics.
The special needs teacher and her partner Nick Mayer, who is 11 years her junior, thought their final hope had been dashed last August when she suffered what appeared to be a miscarriage.
Yesterday they told the Mail their remarkable story as MS Tollefsen describes the baby girl she is due to have this Easter as a "miracle".
Not only is she about to become a first-time mother at the age of 57, but she found out she was pregnant just eight weeks ago.
Referred to hospital as an emergency after a physical examination by a private GP had revealed a "hard abdominal mass", she had been bracing herself for the worst.
Clutching a paper with the suspected diagnosis "Ovarian Cancer?????" on it, she burst into tears as she waited for a scan.
"I was lying on the examination table thinking, 'I'm going to die' when the sonographer turned round to me and said 'Congratulations'," says Susan.
"My initial reaction was to think, 'What a terrible way to tell me I've got ovarian cancer'. When he then said, 'You're pregnant' I was literally speechless.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
God smiled thinly and obliged her.
I don’t know which would be harder, starting with your first child at 57 or fighting cancer.
The Lord does work in mysterious ways. I doubt if he was "smiling thinly" though.
57 is a bit long in the tooth to be having a kid, but I have no doubt this baby is going to be born into a loving home, and there can't be anything wrong with that.
This is a good story. No need to worry about these people. It's the blessing they've always wished for.
Congrats to the couple. I hope her ‘partner’ decides to stay around and marry her in order to give the kid a good upbringing.
I would be questioning the “supposed” doctor that thought she had a hard mass and told her that she had cancer.
What a beautiful medical mistake!
I’m beginning to think the UK Mail runs a lot of fake stories.
“woman of 57 with suspected ovarian cancer was in fact expecting her first baby.”
Damn. Bravo.
Wow. Best wishes to her. I know that this was a complete surprise but she and her mate seem to be joyful. I hope the parents and baby have a full and happy life.
My dad was 16 when I was born. My mother was 17.
Hooray for socialized medicine!
“...follows-several years of attempts to have a baby by IVF treatment at foreign clinics.”
Not exactly... I guess IVF must be one thing not covered (or not done well) by the National Health...
Prayers up for this brave lady!
Seems pretty scary to me to have a baby at any age...let alone 57..WoW
I hope she lives to be 100 :-)
My great Grandma was 14 and my great Grandpa 21 when my grandpa was born...they were together for 61 years. :-)
Things was sure different in 1917.
I meant the misdiagnosis.
What crappy doctors the NHS must have. First, her OB/GYN apparently told her she had a miscarriage when she had not. (A good doc would have followed up on that with an exam to make sure she expelled the dead tissue and did not get an infection.) Then another doc thought she had ovarian cancer — apparently that doctor has never palpated a baby in mom’s abdomen. Good grief.
Aside from all that, this is the miracle she’s been praying for! Good for her. This baby will be very well loved. (Though it would be nice if the “partner” would do the right thing and marry her to make an official family.)
Thank God for this Easter miracle - and the One who has made all miracles possible! May the loving spirit of God bless them all...
My great Grandma was 46 and my great Grandpa was 57 when they had my Grandma (their last) in 1890.
Where do you get that from? The article says that she had TWO embryos implanted. She could have miscarried one of them. If any of it is true...
wow...46 is pretty old to have a baby.
And I’m sure there was no embryo implant since it was 1890 :-)
"Referred to hospital as an emergency after a physical examination by a private GP had revealed a "hard abdominal mass",......"
I realize that she is a post menopausal woman, so pregnancy wouldn't just jump out at you, but how thorough was the physical examination that failed to alert the examiner to a "baby on board"? Maybe the GP needs a brief refresher course in pregnancy.
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Oh my.... WHERE have you been? *chuckle*
Well, lots of lib wackos DO see babies as nothing more than a cancer to be cut out.
Congrats and good luck to the couple.
They could be married. The Brits use the term partner when speaking of both mates and shack ups.
I’d be questioning the ethics of the doctor that gave IVF treatments to a woman of that age.
My brother was three when my daughter was born. :-) They grew up more like brother and sister than niece and uncle.
Reminders of Sarah and Elizabeth!
The special needs teacher and her partner Nick Mayer, who is 11 years her junior,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Her partner?
As long as the women want these children, I don't have an issue with it. In fact, I hope she has four more. What the heck. This is a miracle not something to frown about.
According to the article, she did not tell that doctor that she had undergone IVF.
Yeah, in britain you aren’t allowed to say “husband” or “dad” or “wife” or “mother”. It’s offensive to the homos./s
You’re right. My bad. The article says that she had the IVF at a forgeign clinic. My guess (after a little more thought) is that when she started to bleed after a few weeks, she just assumed she had miscarried everything. If she did not take the responsibility to follow up on it with her NHS doctor at home, then that is her mistake, not the doctor’s. The article doesn’t spell it out, so we don’t know. However, I will stand on my assertion that a competent OB/GYN, if he/she were actually brought into the loop, would have asked her to have a follow-up exam to check for remaining live embryos, dead tissue that should be removed, etc.
I guess it’s become politically incorrect, in the British media, to refer to a spouse as a husband or wife.
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