this came in on a list i am on. I found it so incredible, i wanted to share with u guys.
Woman performs own caesarean to save baby
Tuesday, April 6, 2004 Posted: 2:51 PM EDT (1851 GMT)
(Reuters) -- A pregnant woman in Mexico gave birth to a healthy baby boy
after performing a caesarean section on herself with a kitchen knife,
doctors said on Tuesday.
It is thought to be the first known case of a self-inflicted caesarean in
which both the mother and baby survived.
The unidentified 40-year-old, who lived in a rural area without electricity,
running water or sanitation that was an eight-hour drive from the nearest
hospital, performed the operation when she could not deliver the baby
naturally.
She had lost a previous baby due to labor complications.
"She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife,
sliced her abdomen in three attempts...and delivered a male infant that
breathed immediately and cried," said Dr R.F. Valle, of the Dr Manuel
Velasco Suarez Hospital in San Pablo, Mexico.
Valle recounted the event in a report in the International Journal of
Gynecology and Obstetrics.
Before losing consciousness the woman told one of her children to call a
local nurse for help. After the nurse stitched the wound with a sewing
needle and cotton thread, the mother and baby were transferred and treated
by Valle and his colleagues at the nearest hospital.
"This case represents an unusual and extraordinary decision by a women in
labour who, unable to deliver herself spontaneously, and with no medical
help or resources, decided to perform a caesarean section upon herself,"
Valle said.
He added that a mother's instinct to save her child can move a woman to
perform extraordinary acts but said it would not have been necessary if
adequate medical care had been available.