Rebecca’s story

Rebecca, from Birmingham, is supporting our MRI Appeal after her own traumatic birth experience saw her needing an MRI a day afterwards.

Rebecca and her partner, Stuart, were happily expecting their first child. Rebecca’s pregnancy had been healthy, and when Rebecca’s waters broke, she came to our hospital as planned.

Unfortunately, the birth did not progress as it should. After several days of difficult and painful labour, doctors decided it wasn’t safe to wait any longer. They performed an emergency C-section, and Rebecca’s firstborn daughter, Ella, was born.

Rebecca gave birth to Ella at our hospital

With her newborn baby in her arms, Rebecca was relieved that her daughter was healthy, but she was absolutely exhausted and still in a lot of pain. She wanted to spend all her time with Ella, resting and recovering from the birth, but during a phone call to her mum, things took a frightening turn.

Rebecca suddenly found she couldn’t speak. Even though she tried, words wouldn’t come out of her mouth. She was terrified.

In fear for Rebecca, Stuart pressed the emergency button, and her bed was immediately surrounded by staff. Clinicians quickly checked Rebecca over, looking into her eyes to check for signs of a stroke or neurological condition. The traumatised new mum was urgently seen by a neurologist, who broke the news that she would need an urgent MRI scan of her brain.

The next day, Rebecca had her MRI scan. As there’s no MRI scanner at the Women’s Hospital, Rebecca had to travel to the nearest available site with one, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QE). Even though the hospital is just next door, Rebecca had to be discharged from the Women’s Hospital and then admitted to the QE for the scan. While it was a short journey, it was a deeply traumatic experience for the new mum, who was only 19 years old at the time. Her partner stayed with their newborn, still in shock and deeply worried about Rebecca.

Rebecca remembers: “Getting up from your hospital bed to go to another hospital when you can barely straighten your own body, is agonising. You’re so worried about your baby and the future. It’s not like anything you imagined.”

After the scan, Rebecca was taken back to our hospital. Thankfully, the results came back quickly: the scan found nothing wrong. Rebecca’s symptoms cleared up, and she was able to speak normally again. She was checked over by a neurologist and stayed in hospital for two more days to be monitored and recover. When she was feeling strong enough, mum and baby were able to go home.

Rebecca still isn’t sure what caused her symptoms. While she is thankful that nothing was more seriously wrong, she strongly feels that having a scanner at our hospital would have made all the difference to her experience at what was already such a stressful time.

She explains: “It would have been so much smoother and easier to have had the scan in the same hospital. I would have been kept nearer to my baby and my partner, saving a lot of heartache and stress.

“When you’ve received such scary news and you’ve already been through a difficult birth, any kind of travelling is just too much. That’s why I massively support this appeal.”

Bringing an MRI to our hospital will significantly improve the experience and outcomes of our patients. It will create more scanning capacity and mean women and families like Rebecca’s won’t have to wait longer than necessary to receive the updates they deserve.