Premature baby born with her intestines outside her body defies odds to survive

A baby born with her intestines outside of her body was able to go home after 110 days in hospital.

In October last year, baby Autumn Warner from Kamloops, Canada, was able to return home after almost four months in the hospital. She was born nine weeks early and delivered via an emergency caesarean section. She suffered from a rare disability called gastroschisis, which stops the abdominal wall from forming completely and kills up to 10 percent of affected babies.

Gastroschisis occurs when a child’s abdomen does not develop fully while in the womb. The incidence rate is low, with one in 3,000 babies born with the condition each year in the UK.

Despite doctors finding it more challenging to treat Autumn because she was born prematurely, they were able to feed her intestines back into her stomach during an intense operation.

110 days in hospital

Autumn’s mum, Holly Striloff, 33, and her partner Travis Warner, 32, found out Autumn had the condition in April 2021 when Holly was 18 weeks pregnant.

Her mum said: “I was shocked because it was not something I had ever really heard of before. At the time, it was incredibly overwhelming because we were just concerned for her safety”.

She was admitted to hospital on 2 July 2021 and gave birth at 31 weeks to Autumn — whose low birthweight made her gastroschisis even more difficult to treat.

Ms Striloff added: “There are a lot of complications that come with the condition, but she was also not growing and was in the third percentile”.

“It has been a chaotic and stressful journey and meant that neither of us really rested much with everything happening”.

After difficult surgery which lasted 12 days, and a long time for recovery, Autumn was able to leave the hospital on 23 October 2021.

Ms Striloff said: “I had been dreaming of the day for the whole time we were there, and it will now always be a really special day for us. It was 110 days of sleepless nights, mental exhaustion, trauma, defeat and tears”.

“Yet at the same time, it was 110 days of milestones met, love at first sight, excitement and pure joy”.

“She now weighs 8lbs 4oz and is happy and healthy thanks to the incredible care we received”.

In 2020, there were in England and Wales 21 abortions due to reports that mentioned  “malformations of the digestive system” as a reason for the abortion. It is possible some of these included abortion on the grounds that the baby suffered from the same condition as Autumn, gastroschisis.

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