It’s just as well he has a stubborn streak! Why miracle mum owes her life to hubby who said ‘No’

BEATRICE Way knows she owes her life to her husband’s stubbornness.

After being left in a coma following a heart attack and stroke, doctors gave up hope of her surviving.

Her husband, Alexander, was asked to grant permission for Beatrice’s life support to be switched off, and her organs to be taken for transplant.

But he refused. And six years later his wife has made an astonishing recovery, while the couple have been blessed with an adorable baby girl.

Alexander remembers the terrible moment doctors at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, told him they thought Beatrice, now 42, would not pull through.

“I was stunned, angry and felt they were ending my wife’s life without considering further treatment,” he said.

“I was adamant that more could be done.

“However, the doctors insisted Beatrice had very little brain response and that there was no way she could ever improve.

“If she did wake up at all she would barely respond to others. She would also be blind.

“A lot of words were exchanged. In no uncertain terms I told them, ‘Don’t switch off my wife’s life support!’

“I was in shock. Beatrice’s stroke was on a Thursday and she was in a coma by Saturday afternoon.

“I wasn’t told until Monday. They just said she was ‘sleeping’.”

But the doctors took his protests seriously.

Within a day Beatrice was transferred to a neurosurgical unit to be treated by
specialist brain surgeons.

It was a move which would save her life.

The couple split their time between their homes in Morar, in the Highlands, and Essex. And it was while they were moving into their house in Ugley, a hamlet in the English county, that Beatrice suffered the cardiac arrest.

Within two days she had slipped into a coma.

Alexander, 44, reeled in shock when doctors asked him to agree to let them turn off her life support.

“The request was followed by a plea to consider donating Beatrice’s organs for transplant,” he recalled.

A neurosurgeon removed 40% of her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain, which was swollen by the stroke. He then transplanted it into her abdomen for six weeks, allowing her brain room to recover.

Without removing the sizeable piece of bone, the pressure on her brain is likely to have killed her.

Beatrice remembers only the lead up to the cardiac arrest.

“We were moving house to our home in Ugley,” she recalled. “I felt ill and that I was falling but I managed to call out to Alexander.

“I showed all the signs of a stroke and he held and comforted me until the ambulance paramedics arrived and took me to hospital.”

Beatrice later learned she had suffered the attack due to a heart defect called
congenital hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

“My next memory is waking four weeks later in hospital.

“I am so grateful to Alexander for questioning the doctors who thought my life was over.

“He saved my life.”

For nine months after leaving hospital, Beatrice gave her all to her rehabilitation.

By her bedside was a jar of silvery sand from Morar beach.

“It is my favourite place on Earth,” she smiled.

Months of unstinting effort helped her overcome the paralysis which affected her left leg and arm.

She was helped every step of the way by a physiotherapy team in Cambridge. And, rather than being left blind as predicted by the first medical team, she has emerged with good sight and has been passed fit to drive.

And her dream of becoming a mum was realised last June when she gave birth to Rosemary.
Doctors had advised against pregnancy but the couple’s desire to become parents was just too strong.

The gorgeous one-year-old was born six weeks early, weighing 3lbs 2oz.

Beatrice smiled: “She has blossomed into a beautiful, healthy infant.

“Every day is a reminder of how lucky we are.”

Alexander is keen to share their story so that others will be inspired.

He said: “Hopefully our experience will give others the confidence to know that it is possible to
continue when their relatives are desperately ill.

“That is something we feel quite strongly about.

“It is vital to explore all the options before agreeing to life and death decisions about loved ones.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that prayer kept us going in our darkest days.

“It was so important to us throughout it all.

“I am truly blessed to have Beatrice and Rosemary.

“We owe the miracle of Beatrice’s survival and Rosemary to God.

“Rosemary is, to us, a living witness of the power of prayer.”

Walking along the sands near their Morar home, Alexander said: “Beatrice is at her happiest here.

“It is one of the most beautiful parts of the world.”

Neurosurgeon Ian Low said: “Beatrice came to us extremely ill.

“Thankfully we were able to relieve the pressure on her brain by removing 40% of her skull and transplanting it temporarily in her abdomen.

“She has made a superb recovery. So much so, she is now mum to a healthy baby girl.

“We deem that a wonderful result.”

The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, did not respond to our request for a comment.