Eden Mae Webb – A Miracle Baby!

The story starts on the morning of 8 March 2011, what I thought was just another morning for the Webb family. I was already on my way to work when Carmen (my wife) phones me to tell me the alarm is possessed as it’s continually going off even though it’s deactivated. And with that I turn around and drive home. So I get home 15 minutes later, and the part that is significant here is that I did not make it to work (God moment 1)!

Carmen and I had discussed the pain and discomfort she was feeling (37 weeks into her pregnancy and you expect this especially as this is our 4th child), and we decided that going to see the Gynae was a smart idea (God moment 2, read on and you will understand why …). So Carmen goes in for what she believes will be a routine check-up and gets committed to the labour ward for delivery. I scramble to get the bags etc ready but expect it’s going to be a routine day as this is our 4th baby.

3 hours later we are both in the labour ward and things are progressing normally. Carmen asks for an epidural and the midwife requests the anaesthetist come and set one up. Carmen has come into the hospital on an unplanned day, and nothing is booked or ready for her. The anaesthetist has a cancellation (God moment 3) right at the time Carmen is starting to feel very uncomfortable and has a lot of pain. He walks into the ward and we have a chat and catch up. This is the 3rd time we are seeing him in the ward while a new Webb is on the way.

2 hours on and Carmen is in delivery mode and we have the gynae and midwife helping Carmen deliver the 4th and final Webb. Things are progressing, but not quite as smoothly as we expected, that being said we are unaware of any issues. 15 minutes later on we notice that during the contractions the babies heartbeat gets very very faint. Next thing we see the gynae and midwife both looking quite flustered and a little panicked. We obviously become a little more tense, but do not know what the reasons are as they are focussing on delivery, not talking to the parents.

Another 10 minutes on, the gynae tells us that Carmen needs to have an emergency Caesarean (God moment 4 and this decision saves my wife and babies life!). We are not thrilled about that as the other 3 children were all natural birth. That being said we have no alternative, so off we go to get prepared to go into theatre. We manage to go straight into a prepared operating theatre immediately (God moment 5); not waiting and all staff required are also available. Remembering that this is a day that my wife is not planned to be in hospital, and even less having a caesarean.

As we enter the theatre, a 2nd Gynae joins our gynae and this was possible as he had just completed his previous surgery literally 2 minutes before Carmen was wheeled in (God moment 6). So they get my wife ready and get to work. The staff and gynae’s are all very focussed and do not waste a second anywhere. They perform the start of the caesarean and are working to get baby Eden out of Carmen’s tummy. This process takes longer than what it should and I can see they are starting to get a bit nervous! We do the very same thing, we have no idea what to expect here. I have never felt so helpless in all my life!

Next thing I see movement and more noise from gynae’s and staff and baby Eden is about to be taken out of Carmen’s tummy. I am relieved and then see her baby arm drop down to the right and it was limp and lifeless! My heart dropped right through my feet, I had no way of hiding my emotion and Carmen reacted straight away asking what was wrong! I did not have the heart to tell her Eden was limp, instead put my head by hers and told her all was going to be OK. In all honesty, I was not saying this to calm her down, more of a statement that I needed Eden to be OK and that selfishly was just for me!

It felt like hours but seconds later the anaesthetist said baby was OK, she opened her eyes. I did not see that, but moments later heard Eden scream … I was totally overcome with emotion and just burst into tears! I have never been filled with such a sense of relief in all my life.

The focus very quickly shifted to Carmen and what was happening to my wife, there was a huge amount of blood everywhere. This certainly was not just a case of a normal caesarean delivery. The Gynae held my wife’s uterus in her hand and put her fist right through the hole in the uterus. It is not meant to have any holes in it. All of the medical staff in the theatre were totally shocked by what they were seeing. In more than 50 collective years of delivering babies, neither Gynae had ever seen this. The anaesthetist had never seen this either, we were told this is the stuff they read of in medical journals.

The gynae then informed us that my wife needed an emergency hysterectomy, and that procedure followed while she was 100% awake. The anaesthetist controlled my wife’s medication via IV and they successfully completed the procedure (God moment 7). She is one of very few women in the world that has ever experienced this, and in order for this to be successful you need a phenomenally good anaesthetist and a very Big God in control of every detail like we had that day!

I went back to the labour ward and spent the next hours with Eden sleeping on my chest while Carmen came out of surgery, got settled into High Care and had blood transfusions. While sitting in the maternity ward with Eden, both gynaes came to sit and chat with me about the events of the day, not once but both came and spoke with me twice. I got a very detailed summary of what happened from our Gynae, and spent a fair amount of time just being totally overwhelmed by the grace of God.

They told me that my baby daughter saved both my wife’s and her own life. She was lying upside down in the tummy, and had her head pressed up against the 2 main arteries that run along the outside of the uterus. This stopped the bleeding and saved Carmen from a certain disaster. Had Carmen stayed at home for the day, it would have been trouble. The fact that Carmen got the epidural meant that she was able to have the emergency caesarean. Without this they would have pursued natural birth by either using forceps or a ventous. This would have resulted in Eden releasing the pressure on the arteries she was pressed up against with her head, and Carmen would have bled out in between 2 and 3 minutes tops. There would not even been time to get to an operating theatre, let alone try anything to stop the bleeding. Eden had cord wrapped around her and through all the trauma would also not have survived.

The story had a big impact on the doctors and medical staff involved, as did it the rest of the hospital. In a matter of hours, we were told that the only people in the hospital who did not know about the miracle God did were those who were unconscious or in a coma! The doctors are also presenting this case to a medical forum as a medical miracle.

My wife told me the following day that while the hysterectomy was being performed, the anaesthetist asked her if she went to church, she responded “yup” that we go to JoshGen. He said you must … as there was someone very high up looking out for you!

The events of the day were all perfectly planned, God knew! Each “God moment” I mentioned was required for the day to work out, there are so many things that could have gone wrong, but did not. As a result we stand together as a family having lived through one of the most incredible days we have ever experienced!

As for me and my family, we serve a King who loves us more than we can grasp, and He saved my family! Thank you Jesus …