A baby girl who was expected to be stillborn and was diagnosed with several rare conditions has defied all expectations. She is now expected to live "a fairly typical life".
During her pregnancy, doctors told Acacia Beach, 26, that her unborn child may have a multitude of rare conditions including Down's syndrome, a herniated brain and spina bifida. She was also warned unborn Dani had a life expectancy of three weeks to one year and might be stillborn – Acacia was even given the option of abortion.
However, young Dani Beach has defied the odds and is now six months old. She's hit every developmental milestone set for her and her life is now expected to be fairly typical.
Acacia's ordeal began when she was three months pregnant and began experiencing intense cramping and bleeding. She immediately rushed to the emergency department where she was told that her placenta had detached and that she could suffer a miscarriage.
Acacia, a stay-at-home mum, was told to stay on bed rest for the weekend and was sent home by the A&E doctors. The situation was incredibly traumatic for Acacia.
Wrong diagnosis
She was forced to get a babysitter for her son and had to announce the miscarriage to her entire family. The following Monday, Acacia, who is now living near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, went to see a specialist, who told her she had been misdiagnosed.
"I was overwhelmed with relief and confused, I was so frustrated with my emergency doctor. I'm sure I'm not the first person he's told that to. It was a lot of emotional trauma."
The specialist explained that Acacia's condition, the detached and later reattached placenta, was fairly common, and does not necessarily end in miscarriage. After her traumatic first visit, Acacia's pregnancy went by without a hitch until an anatomy scan revealed the baby had a distended forehead.
This initiated several rounds of tests and probes, which could not reach a firm conclusion about the baby. "They explained that the baby had many deficits," Acacia said.
She said that at this point no one was certain exactly what issues the baby as experiencing. Two main conditions where put forward: Edwards syndrome and Patau syndrome.
Both syndromes occur in around 1 in 5,000 live births. The doctors also found a spinal abnormality, which they thought might be spina bifida.
Three weeks to one year
Acacia's baby was given, separately, either one year or three weeks to live, depending on which of the two conditions she had. Naturally, Acacia was devastated.
In a tragic moment, doctors also offered Acacia the option to abort. She added: "They gave us the option to abort without any conclusive answer on everything. It felt like the room they take you to to tell you your baby is going to die."
But the idea of an abortion was never entertained by Acacia. She finally got some peace when further tests revealed that the baby's brain was completely normal, with no herniation, and the spinal abnormality was minor.
Finally, after months of uncertainty, Dani's condition was revealed to be the extremely rare Apert syndrome, which affects one in every 600,000-800,000 American kids. Apert syndrome causes the fusing of the skull and bones in the hands and feet.
After birth, some more operations had to be undergone in order to correct Dani's intestinal tract, but they were completed without too many issues. Acacia added: "Dani is now with us and she's become a happy, reasonably healthy and fittingly naughty young girl."
While she suffers from some of the issues related to Apert syndrome, Dani has hit every milestone set out for a growing baby, and will likely live into her seventies.
Smiley, happy baby
Acacia said: "She's so sassy, she really will tell you what she wants. She's just a giggley, smiley, happy baby. As soon as you lock eyes with her she smiles at you, she's just really sweet and content."
Watching her little girl, who seemed so close to death, at so many different times, thrive in a happy and loving household has given a new lease to Acacia. "I'm just speechless that I was brought down all the way to death and now it's just a couple of surgeries and therapy. I'm kind of mourning normalcy."
