Battler Kirsty gets surprise of her life with baby

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Battler Kirsty gets surprise of her life with baby

Article from: Herald Sun
Michelle Pountney

August 27, 2008 12:00am

MELBOURNE woman Kirsty Jones had just 10 days to adjust to the fact she was about to become a mother for the second time.

Ms Jones, who has fought the rare auto-immune disease Goodpasture's syndrome for five years, went to hospital for a kidney scan as part of a clinical trial.

And doctors told the 27-year-old she was pregnant.

Ten days later she had an emergency caesarean to deliver Jason, who weighed just over 1kg and was believed to be at 29 weeks' gestation, 11 weeks premature.

Goodpasture's syndrome, which Melbourne specialists see rarely, attacks the kidneys and lungs -- and, in Ms Jones's case, her heart.

Baby Jason's arrival is all the more incredible because this time last year his mother was on life support after a rare pneumonia, that occurs only in patients with a suppressed immune system, invaded her lungs.

She was in ICU for two months and at one stage was so critically ill that her partner, Ben Oddy, and family were asked to come and say goodbye to her.

During that time her weight fell to just 37kg.

But she fought back from the brink of death, as she did three years ago when the disease attacked her heart so severely that surgeons considered putting her on the transplant list.

Then, late last month, her life turned another corner with the shock news of her pregnancy.

But the stress it put on her petite body meant her kidney function deteriorated and she was put on dialysis at Monash Medical Centre.

She was one of only eight women in a decade to have dialysis while pregnant.

Ms Jones now faces permanent dialysis, at this stage three times a week for four hours at a time, and a possible kidney transplant.

Cradling her tiny son, now almost three weeks old and weighing 1.4kg, Ms Jones recalled how she was stunned when doctors told her she was pregnant.

"I could only feel pretty much shock. It's something you wouldn't expect especially with all the heart, lung and kidney problems I've had," she said.

Her second response was fear; the fear that the cocktail of drugs she was taking to control her conditions had affected her unborn child.

Ms Jones had felt a strange sensation like a kick in her stomach the night before, but pregnancy was the furthest thing from her mind as she thought she was infertile.

"I felt bloated but I put it down to the drugs I am on and fluid retention because of my kidneys," she said.

Ms Jones said her daughter, Paige, 7, was delighted to be a big sister but didn't believe the news at first.

A decision was made to deliver Jason by emergency caesarean at Monash Medical Centre on August 7 because of fetal distress.

When Jason was born weighing 1089g, doctors did not know how premature he was. Estimates ranged from seven to 19 weeks early but specialists eventually decided he was born 11 weeks early at 29 weeks' gestation.

Ms Jones's kidney specialist, Prof Peter Kerr, said that doctors treated only one or two new cases of Goodpasture's syndrome in Melbourne each year.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24247738-2862,00.html