Baby Born With Organs Outside Her Body Saved After Being Wrapped In CLINGFILM

A baby born with her intestines outside her body was saved after she was wrapped up — in CLINGFILM.

Jade Adams, 20, was told at her 12-week scan that her unborn baby likely had birth defect gastroschisis which meant her abdomen wasn’t forming properly.

Seconds after little Darcie Musto was born, doctors wrapped her tightly in cling film round and round her body to keep her organs in place and infection free.

After less than a minute of cuddles with parents Jade and Lewis Musto, she was whisked off for an operation to put her bowel back inside.

Six operations later and little Darcie is home in Braintree, Essex, with her mum and dad, and proving everyone she’s a little fighter.

The seven-month-old still has a stoma but doctors will attempt to remove it when she is one.

Her family are raising money for The Sick Children’s Trust which provided them with a place to stay near Great Ormond Street while their daughter was poorly.

Jade said: “When they told us that she had gastroschisis I was absolutely devastated.

“It was awful.

“She’s fine now – rolling around absolutely fine – but at the time I was devastated.

“When she was born we had to have the resuscitation team there because she was early and I hadn’t had any steroids or anything.

“But she came out and she was breathing completely all on her own.

“They wrapped her up in clingfilm – just like the stuff you have in the drawer at home – and it went all around her body from the front to the back and around again.

“It was absolutely amazing to hold her, for less that a minute.

“Ten minutes after she was born she was gone with Lewis to Great Ormond Street.

“I had to give consent for them to operate on the phone which was absolutely awful because I just wanted to be with her.

“The wrapped her intestines in the cling film again but by the time I got there she had had the operation.

“She made it through one hell of a fight, six operations and a total of 16 weeks in hospital.

“We are so proud of her.”

The couple found out they were expecting on Boxing Day 2015 but at the 12 week scan in February 2016 the sonographer detected an abnormality.

“The people in the scan room were talking amongst themselves and my partner said ‘there’s something wrong isn’t there?'” recalled Jade.

“They said ‘we think it’s gastroschisis’ and I’d never heard of it.”

The soon-to-be parents were given the diagnosis two days later.

The condition happens when the intestines don’t move into the foetus’ abdomen and grow outside the body because the abdominal wall does not completely form.

Around one in 3,000 babies are born with the condition in the UK each year.

Jade, who was then working in sales admin, had monthly and then twice-monthly scans before she went into labour five weeks early on July 31, last year.

She had Darcie naturally at Broomfield Hospital and the baby was immediately wrapped in clear plastic to reduce the amount of fluid and body heat lost, and protect the intestines from damage.

She was rushed to Great Ormond Street with Lewis, a builder, and underwent a two-hour op to put her organs back in.

“They were so fragile that initially she could only have 3mm a day of feed, but it soon built up,” said Jade.

Darcie was later diagnosed with intestinal disconnection disorder colonic atresia and suffered problems with her stoma.

It was reversed, but Darcie caught a virus which affected her lungs, and it was re-installed and is still in place now.

Now she is at home, hitting all her targets, and doctors expect her to make a full recovering when she has another stoma removal operation in September.

“We’re so proud of her,” said Jade.

“She laughs, she cried and she is not behind in any of her development.

“She’s our miracle.”

Jade and Lewis raised £2,500 for Great Ormond Street Hospital before Darcie was born.

The family have spent time at Guildford Street House, which supports families of sick children being treated at the hospital, and are raising cash for the scheme.

Jade said: “We can’t thank them enough for putting us up when we needed to be together the most.

“Ten weeks seemed like a lifetime, but being able to be together every day made it that little bit easier.”

To donate visit: www.gofundme.com/2znie1k