Baby survives termination effort, ‘flutters’ in mother’s womb after surgery

A woman who underwent an abortion to terminate the life of baby Finley because he might have kidney damage was shocked when she discovered the child was meant to live.

Following the surgical operation, Jodie Percival, 25, began to feel tiny flutters in her womb – an indication that the baby survived the procedure and was determined to keep his life. A doctor confirmed she was, indeed, 19 weeks pregnant, the Daily Mail reported.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Percival said. “This was the baby I thought I’d terminated.”

Initially angry that the operation had failed, she decided to inform the doctors who performed the failed abortion.

“I wrote to the hospital,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that they had let me down like this. They wrote back and apologized and said it was very rare.”

Percival and her fiance, Billy Crampton, 35, from Nottinghamshire, England, had chosen to terminate the pregnancy when they feared their baby could suffer from a life-threatening condition known as multicystic dysplastic kidney – an illness where cysts form on an unborn baby’s kidneys. Their first son died from the condition and the second suffered from serious kidney damage after he was born.

Percival claims to have been taking birth control pills at the time of Finley’s conception. She said choosing to have an abortion was very difficult.

“Deciding to terminate at eight weeks was just utterly horrible, but I couldn’t cope with the anguish of losing another baby,” she said.

Born three weeks premature at 6 pounds and 3 ounces, baby Finley arrived in November with troubles in only one kidney. Doctors are confident he will survive and lead a normal life.

“I knew if that operation hadn’t failed he wouldn’t have been there,” Percival said. “I just couldn’t believe that this child had got through it all and looked so perfect. Now he’s here, I wouldn’t change it for the world.”