The story of how one premature baby girl escaped her own death in a hospital by a freak accident, or perhaps divine intervention, has resurfaced online.
In 2012, Kate Douse gave birth to premature twin baby girls at 23 weeks in the U.K. One baby, Isabella, tragically passed weeks after birth, and the other, Maddalena, survived when a pair of medical scissors was accidently left on a weight scale.
As noted by Life News, doctors in Great Britain do not consider babies under one pound to be “viable,” and thus do not attempt to save the baby’s life with any extraordinary measures.
Unbeknownst to the doctors present, baby Maddalena was only 13 ounces at birth. But instead of being considered non-viable and therefore left for dead, the baby was measured to be exactly one pound thanks to a pair of scissors mistakenly left on the scale she was weighed on. This mistake, or miracle, promoted physicians to work on baby Maddalena and likely saved her life.
After the baby girl was placed on a ventilator, doctors finally realized that Maddalena was only 13 ounces and that a pair of scissors had tipped the scale.
“She now weighs 5½lbs and is getting stronger by the day,” Maddalena’s parents told U.K. outlet The Sun of their then-six-month-old baby girl. “She’s our little miracle and we’re so glad to have her home in time for Christmas.”
“I’m just in awe of her,” they added.
In the United States, babies at 23 weeks, the age of baby Maddalena at birth, can be killed in the womb in numerous states.