Baby saved by emergency heart op after catching cold in the womb
SITTING happily on his mother’s lap, Austin Cank looks a picture of health.
But at 14 months the toddler has already survived two brushes with death – the first while still in the womb.
He caught a cold when his mother was three months pregnant and doctors told his anguished parents they feared he would not survive.
Two weeks after Austin was born, tests showed the virus had damaged his heart and he needed emergency surgery.
‘Austin is such a boisterous and happy little child that it is hard to believe now how ill he was,’ said his mother Tina, 31. ‘There were many times we thought he was going to die.’
Mrs Cank, a customer services adviser from Leicester, was 12
‘Hard to believe how ill he was’
weeks pregnant when she felt unwell but her GP reassured her it was merely a head cold.
But at her 20-week scan, she and her husband David, 30, who have a three-year-old daughter Evie, were shocked to be told that one side of Austin’s heart was enlarged.
Tests on fluid in the womb found traces of the Coxsackie B virus, which usually gives the sufferer mild flu-like symptoms but can cause inflammation of the heart muscle.
Doctors said they did not know whether Austin would live and offered Mrs Cank and her husband a termination. ‘There was no way we could do that,’ she said. ‘However, it was heartbreaking to feel Austin kicking and know he might not survive.’
At 36 weeks, Mrs Cank went into labour and Austin arrived weighing 4lb 12oz.
He was allowed home after four days but a check-up the following week found the virus had damaged Austin’s heart and he needed immediate surgery.
‘There were so many times we thought, after coming so far, we’d still lose him,’ said Mrs Cank. ‘Now he still needs checkups but he is full of beans.’ Coxsackie B is one of a group of viruses, most of which cause only mild illness.
Dr Bryan Beattie, a consultant in foetal medicine, said: ‘It’s very rare that it causes any harm to the baby, and most babies born to mums who had it in pregnancy are absolutely fine.’