'We were past 12 weeks, we thought we were safe': Couple's lives 'torn apart' by scan
29.04.2023 - 16:37
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Screams rang out across the ultrasound room as Melissa Hayat tried to process what she had just heard.
“We’re so sorry,” the sonographer told her just moments earlier. “He will more than likely pass away over the next few days.”
Melissa’s pregnancy was going well up until her 12-week scan. Despite suffering from extreme morning sickness, her son appeared to be healthy.
But that all changed on December 23. A sonographer was moving the transducer over her belly when she noticed something alarming.
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Melissa’s unborn baby boy, who she named Noah, had swelling on his neck. His bowel was growing on the outside of his body and he also had an irregular heartbeat. Tragically, doctors knew he wasn’t going to make it.
Melissa, 29, was told to return for another scan a few days later. While at home, the mum-of-two felt “butterfly movements” inside her. That’s when she knew her baby was gone.
Sadly, her worst fears were realised on December 28 when a second scan confirmed Noah had died. Melissa gave birth to him two days later – describing the heartbreaking experience as “horrific”.
Recalling the moment she found out she was going to lose her baby, Melissa, from Prestwich, said: “It was heartbreaking. We had passed the 12-week stage and we thought that was a safe point.
“I just lay down on the bed and it just felt like a bad dream, like it was happening on TV. I started screaming and my heart broke and I was crying.
“They rang the ward manager and she came down and was cuddling me. It was a big blur, like it was in slow motion. I thought, ‘This can’t be happening to me.’
“It was a dark moment. We had to be wheeled back through the scanning department