Pregnant nurse had a stroke a week before her due date - and gave birth while she was still paralysed.

Miraculous: Kate Weaver, pictured with her newborn son Toby, gave birth while still paralysed

A woman who had stroke a week before her due date gave birth while she was still paralysed.

Nurse Kate Weaver, 29, felt her muscles cramp up while she was shopping - but soon realised it was in fact a stroke.

Mrs Weaver, who was 39 weeks pregnant at the time, was just able to beg to be taken to hospital before she collapsed completely.

She told her husband Tim, 36: 'We need to go to hospital. It's not the baby I'm really ill', then lost the ability to speak.

She was rushed to hospital, where doctors agonised over whether to perform thrombolysis on her - a procedure which would break down the blood clot which caused her stroke.

Although the procedure would help Mrs Weave, experts at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in Shropshire feared it could harm her unborn son.

But just three days later, after two hospital transfers and an epidural, Mrs Weaver gave birth to Toby was born at a healthy 6lbs 11oz.

Toby was discharged after a week, and Mrs Weaver joined joined him at their home in Wem, Shropshire a week later.

She then faced a lengthy recovery, during which she had to learn to walk again.

 

Mrs Weaver, a haematology nurse, said: 'I can't describe it how scary having a stroke and knowing that I was about to give birth was - I didn't think I was going to make it.

 

 

Healthy: Mrs Weaver recovered fully from her stroke - which left her unable to walk or speak - and her son is developing normally

'I thought we would both die so when I heard Toby cry the release of knowing he was alive was incredible.

'I was very lucky knowing exactly what was happening to me so that we acted quickly.

'But having so much knowledge made it so much worse because I knew the terminology and I knew what might happen.

'I'm a nurse and it still shocks me that someone so young could have a stroke.

'We were out shopping and I knew the signs and I knew straight away what was going on in my body. But if I'd been at home on my own I just don't know what would have happened.'

Healthy: Toby, pictured left with his father Tim, and right with Mrs Weaver, developed like any other healthy baby

Treatment: Mrs Weaver had to stay in hospital for a week longer than her son, and needed lengthy physiotherapy in order to walk again

Although Kate's speech returned within four hours of her stroke, she remained partially paralysed and had almost no movement in her left side when she left hospital. Her recovery was difficult, but Toby has developed like any healthy baby.

Mrs Weaver said: 'There was a risk to him when I was thrombolysed but who knows what would have happened if I hadn't?

'It took two months to accept what had happened. For eight weeks I was in total denial about what happened.

'I kept waking up thinking that the nightmare was going to disappear.

'But now, every milestone for Toby is a milestone for me and an extra feeling of relief that he's making progress like everyone else and we can get back to normal.'

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