Emma Taylor, a 33 year old dental hygienist from Britain, experienced a devastating event when she was seven-and-a-half months pregnant.
Her non-cancerous brain tumor that had been with her for years suddenly burst, forcing her to give birth six weeks prematurely while in a coma.
Her partner, Scott Weeks, quickly drove her to the hospital, where doctors discovered the tumor. To allow for scans, an emergency caesarean section was performed to deliver Ophelia. Fortunately, the baby suffered no complications despite being born early.
The scans revealed that a large tumor had grown and caused a bleed on Taylor’s brain, resulting in paralysis of the left side. She was airlifted to Queen’s Hospital in London and underwent a surgery to remove two-thirds of the 60-millimeter tumor. Taylor remained in a coma for three months before showing signs of “cyclical consciousness”.
Weeks is concerned about the lack of beds in the publicly funded British health care system, which might lead to cutbacks in Taylor’s rehabilitation therapy. He created a GoFundMe page to raise money for her to have private rehabilitation therapy, with the goal of collecting about $630,000. Taylor is slowly recovering and is eager to be able to walk and talk again.