EDMONTON - Roxanne Follet sat in a wheelchair, clutching a bright red, heart-shaped pillow and a photo of her newborn daughter lying in a nearby neonatal intensive care unit.
Her voice cracked with emotion Saturday, as she talked about the miracle baby that saved her life.
Miracle Astra Alice Alfreda Follett was born prematurely, 35 weeks into the pregnancy, on Jan. 24 at the University Hospital. In a rare double operation, worthy of an episode of TV's Grey's Anatomy, she was delivered by caesarian section, moments before doctors started open-heart surgery on her mother.
Roxanne Follett gazes into the face of her newborn daughter, Miracle Astra Alice Afreda, at the University Hospital on Saturday after undergoing simultaneous open-heart surgery and delivery.
It was the first such operation for cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Rod MacArthur and obstetrician Dr. Billy Wong, who both said it was so rare they don't expect to perform another one during their careers.
"There have been approximately 40 cases reported worldwide over the last 25 years and in only approximately half of those cases have both mother and baby survived, so it truly is an exceptional case," MacArthur said during a news conference at the hospital.
As far as MacArthur knows, it is the first such operation in Canada.
Wong said Roxanne Follett would likely not be alive today if she hadn't been pregnant because a tear in her aorta would probably not have been discovered otherwise. Within 24 to 48 hours an aortic tear usually ruptures and, 40 per cent of patients die without emergency surgery, MacArthur added.
The tear was discovered in Edmonton after Follett started struggling to breathe and doctors in Grande Prairie decided she needed to be seen by specialists here.
Doctors faced a Catch-22 situation: Follett likely wouldn't have survived delivery without the heart surgery, but her fetus likely wouldn't have survived the heart surgery, in which Follett's body temperature needed to be cooled to 17 C and the blood drained from her body. Doctors decided to do the caesarian first then the heart surgery, but opened Follett's chest first in case the aorta ruptured while the baby was being delivered. Approximately 12 doctors and nurses were involved in the operation which lasted approximately nine hours.
Follett, a nurse who works in the medical rehabilitation unit of the hospital in Grande Prairie, said she owes her life to her 10-day-old daughter.
"Astra means 'a star,' and that's what she is. She's my star, because if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be here."
The baby was conceived in vitro last year and was the only one of four embryos to survive "so there was a reason," Follett said. "She saved my life and I saved her life.
"I can't even express (what I feel) everytime I look at her. She deserves a million bucks every day for the rest of her life," Follett said, laughing.
Astra's dad, Doug said he feels like he's won a million dollars, "but I didn't get a million dollars. I got two lives."
Doug, who drives a cement truck, spent an emotional 12 hours in a waiting room alternately praying and crying during the operation. "The last time I cried so much, was when I was a baby looking for milk," he joked.
Roxanne said the couple, who are originally from Newfoundland, plan to donate a dollar for every day of Astra's life to the Heart and Stroke Foundation to give back for the miracle they were given.
Astra was scheduled to be airlifted to Grande Prairie hospital where she will spend up to a couple of weeks in that hospital's neonatal intensive care unit growing bigger and stronger. The baby currently weighs just over four pounds but must weigh 5.5 pounds for insurance purposes, before she can travel home in a car seat.
Astra's parents, and her maternal grandmother Alfreda Cunard, who came out from Newfoundland for six weeks to help Roxanne with the baby, were driving back home.
I found this more interesting than usual because Dr Wong is who did my c-section with the Princess. I guess I never really thought about how "high risk" a doctor he really was, holy crap, that's a crazy tandem operation.
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