Mum’s horror after 76-hour, pain relief-free labour causes her brain to burst out of her skull

A MUM-OF-TWO whose brain burst out of her skull during a 76-hour labour went through three years of pain and nearly died before receiving life-saving surgery.

Grace Mountain, 35, from Finchampstead, Berkshire, knew something was badly wrong, but was fobbed off by doctors due to a pre-existing condition.

In 2010 she was diagnosed with Chiari II malformation – where the brain slips to the base of the skull and pushes down on the spinal cord.

She underwent surgery and was managing her pain with medication – but while giving birth to son Patrick, now four, in October 2013, the pressure caused Grace’s brain to burst out of her skull.

She explained: “A specialist in Liverpool finally did an MRI scan in December 2016 and discovered what had happened.

“There was a huge amount of pressure on my brain and my spinal cord. He said he was glad I came now because any longer and I wouldn’t have been here.”

Grace, who has a son, Jacob, 13, from a previous relationship, told how she and boyfriend Mike, 26, were thrilled when she found out she was expecting her second baby in January 2013, despite them being just four months into their relationship.

Her pregnancy went smoothly and actually helped to relieve her symptoms – however, her labour was far from straightforward.

After 76 hours with no pain relief - as her condition means she can’t have an epidural - during which Grace suffered three seizures, she had an emergency caesarean and ended up in intensive care.

“When I came round I was really worried, and I was on my own - my baby son, who we called Patrick, wasn’t with me,” Grace recalled.

“Mike had to fight for me to be allowed to see him, which was six hours later, as bringing a newborn into the ICU wasn’t ideal. I fell straight in love with him. He was amazing, gorgeous. I was so relieved that he was ok.

“I later read my own notes and discovered my heart had stopped during the operation and they had to resuscitate me.”

Three days later Grace and Patrick were allowed to go home – but rather than making a speedy recovery, she continued to feel unwell.

“I went back into hospital a couple of times because my head was really painful and they fobbed me off, saying it was because of my condition and there was nothing really wrong,” Grace recalled.

“Then a couple of months after Patrick was born I woke up one morning and couldn’t stand properly - my legs couldn’t take my weight.

“We rang the ambulance because I couldn’t walk. Again, they didn’t even give me an MRI scan and said it was ‘remembered pain’ from my condition and all in my head.”

Over the next three years Grace went back and forth from hospital, each time begging them to do something.

With Grace unable to work, the family struggled and moved into a bungalow with wheelchair access, with carers coming in to help look after Patrick.

“It was horrible having a very young baby and not being able to look after him properly, it was horrific,” Grace admitted.

“Obviously with the hospital saying there was nothing wrong with me, people started to believe that, so it was a very lonely time.”

It wasn’t until she saw a specialist in Liverpool three years later that the real problem was unearthed.

“My brain had slumped back down,” Grace said.

“The specialist said, ‘I don’t know how you’re still functioning’. If I hadn’t had gone to him, he said it wouldn’t have been long until I would’ve become paralysed or died.”

At first Grace made good progress following surgery, but then her wound began leaking spinal fluid and she later contracted aseptic meningitis, which needed strong antibiotics.

She spent a month in Liverpool, then collapsed three days after returning home and was rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where she underwent three further surgeries.

“They had to put in a shunt - a hole which allows the movement of fluid from one part of the body to another - and a monitor,” said Grace.

“Altogether I was in hospital for about three months. At one point they called my mum in and said I wasn’t going to make it through the night.

“I started to have chronic seizures, because the pressure was so high in my head.

"They said if they didn’t operate I was going to die, but if they operated and I had a seizure on the table I’d also die.

"It was really scary.”

In the past six to eight weeks, Grace has gradually started to feel better and can now walk short distances unaided, but is still on morphine and strong painkillers.

While there is no cure for her condition and she may need further surgery, Grace is determined not to give up and to be there for her children.

“I feel guilty for missing out on so much with my boys,” she said.

“I feel so lucky to have them.”

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