When a woman was going to flush the toilet after using it, she noticed a baby’s hand inside the bowl and realized she was pregnant.
Lalene Malik, 23, was transported to Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, London, by her family on March 26 after complaining of a severe stomach ache at her home in Greenford, west London.
The 23-year-old said she had been on the contraceptive pill five months prior and had tested negative for pregnancy twice in February 2022.
As a result, she assumed the stomach ache was due to constipation.
When the pain grew severe, she was transported to the hospital. Lalene went to the hospital bathroom while waiting to be seen, and her mother, Sumra, heard her weeping in pain while using the toilet and informed doctors.
Lalene noticed a small arm in the toilet bowl just as she was going to flush after using it.
Her infant could have been locked in the toilet bowl for up to seven minutes before being rescued by medics, she says.
“I was gone,” the new mother explained. My mind had gone blank. I was sent to a different room because I was crying and my mother was crying.
“For both of us, it was a huge shock and trauma, and I felt like my life was in jeopardy.”
“(My mother) began to cry and asked, ‘Don’t you realize you have a baby?’ I became pale after that.”
Woman didn
The youngster “appeared lifeless” and was not breathing, according to the doctors who recovered him. Efforts to resuscitate the patient, however, were successful.
Mohammed Ibrahim was born full-term and is now healthy after receiving oxygen and being closely checked by hospital personnel.
Dr. Ewa Grocholski, an A&E registrar at the London hospital, said it was the “most fantastic experience” of her medical career to assist save Ibrahim by giving him chest compressions after he was pulled from the bowl.
Woman didn
“Fortunately, we caught it in time,” she remarked. I’ve never witnessed (a baby’s birth) in such a setting.
“I’ve seen young females like Lalene come to A&E unaware that they’re pregnant and deliver in the A&E department before, but it was always in a more secure location.”
Approximately one in every 2,500 pregnant women is unaware that she is pregnant until she gives birth.
Ms Malik described her son as a “miracle” child, but she accused her family doctor at Elm Trees Surgery in Greenford of failing to properly perform tests that could have indicated she was expecting.
Woman didn
“If I had known I was expecting, I would have treasured those moments going shopping and preparing for the baby,” she added.
Her husband was away at the time and was “very taken aback” when he learned of the birth, according to Ms Malik.
The student, who is doing a master’s degree in international relations at Roehampton University, said she had no intention of having a child and had taken the pill after being prescribed by a doctor from October to January.