We named our after hospital

Mother who had

A MUM who suffered a stroke while pregnant named her baby girl Victoria in honour of the Belfast medics who saved them.

Former care worker Iwona Palmoska found out she was expecting her “miracle baby” two weeks before a blood clot in her brain left her unable to walk or talk.

Doctors and nurses at Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital saved her life in April last year and then helped deliver her healthy girl during a birth she feared would kill her on September 10, 2018.

Speaking from her Antrim home, the 41-year-old told the Mirror: “We called her Victoria after the Royal Victoria Hospital. In my mind I was afraid but everything was good for me and good for the baby.”

The mum of four said she remembers very little about the day she suffered the stroke that nearly killed her but did recall “needing to go to the toilet” before she “sat up in the bed and collapsed”.

She said: “I remember something from going to hospital and thinking my English is not too good because I speak Polish.”

Just 40 when the stroke struck, Iwona was left with significant disabilities, lost power on her right side, had to learn to walk and to talk again – in both Polish and English – but a thrombectomy saved her life.

She stayed in a coma for four weeks as doctors battled to save her brain from swelling and underwent a series of gruelling surgeries to remove parts of her skull and fit a titanium plate.

To this day she suffers from aphasia, weakness on her right side and wears a splint to walk and needs a further operation to fix a hole in her heart which doctors suspect contributed to her stroke.

She is still fighting to be fit again but despite everything, Iwona said she never worried because she thought, “The baby is OK.”

Her partner Stewart Mccullough wasn’t as certain they would pull through.

He said: “I was terrified she wouldn’t wake up and that our baby wouldn’t survive.

“We’d had a bit of a whirlwind romance and were so excited about our new baby then our lives were turned upside down. It felt like a nightmare.

“At 9.50am that morning I got a phone call from her oldest daughter

Daria to say her mum collapsed on the bedroom floor.

“I was the operations manager for Diageo up in

Mallusk and we were

living in Maghera so I said to the HR woman I had to go.

“By the time I got to the Glenshane Pass I met the ambulance going to Antrim Hospital but at that stage I didn’t know how serious the stroke was.”

After arriving at hospital Stewart said the doctor told him his “strong, bubbly” girlfriend could be left disabled and she was quickly transferred to the Royal for emergency treatment.

He added: “It came as that big of a shock.

“They asked to speak to