A mother who was told by doctors to terminate her pregnancy at six months has revealed she has no regrets about the decision to keep her daughter.
Tasha Anderson was 26 weeks pregnant when doctors discovered her baby had a condition where her heart was growing on the wrong side of her body.
She claims doctors told her she would leave her baby with severe physical or mental disabilities and therefore recommended an abortion.
But Tasha and her husband Sam, who are from Lander, Wyoming, refused and said they would love their daughter anyway.
They said it was “God’s intention for her” and were surprised that an abortion was recommended despite the age of the fetus.
Life has not been easy for little Jamesyn, who was born in 32 weeks in May 2023 and weighed just 2 pounds, after also suffering reduced blood flow to the uterus that prevented its growth.
He was diagnosed with another condition where his esophagus did not connect properly to his stomach. Doctors say it is not uncommon for children with this condition to be born with other problems.
He has undergone 27 surgeries to try to correct the defect and today will receive his 28th procedure.
Tasha and Sam Anderson were told at six months to abort their daughter Jamesyn (pictured) because her heart was on the wrong side of her body. the parents refused
Anderson told a local publication Cowboy State Diary: ‘I can’t even imagine life without her.
‘She has taught me a lot about strength and resilience while performing these surgeries.
“Now she is one of the favorites (at the hospital) because she has a great personality and they know she is a great fighter.”
Today’s surgery aims to close a hole in the tube that has allowed food to leak into his lungs and cause infections.
Jamesyn is now 18 months old and is like a little ‘spitfire’, according to her parents.
She’s a happy, smiling baby, and despite not being able to crawl or talk, her parents say she’s cognitively “where she needs to be.”
Their heart condition, called dextrocardia, affects about one in every 12,000 babies born in the United States, statistics suggest. In many cases, however, the disease itself causes no symptoms.
Johns Hopkins Medicine says online that children with dextrocardia but no other conditions “can lead full, healthy lives.”
In some cases, the condition is not diagnosed until someone is older and comes to the hospital for a different medical problem.
The baby was also diagnosed with an esophagus that did not connect to her stomach, preventing her from eating food. He has undergone multiple surgeries since then to repair this
He was also diagnosed with esophageal atresia, or an esophagus (tube that carries food from the mouth) that was not connected to the stomach.
It was unclear when her esophageal condition was diagnosed, but the CDC says online that the condition is “rarely” diagnosed during pregnancy. It affects approximately one in every 4,200 babies.
The two conditions are not often reported together, medical reports suggest, and a 2021 medical report says it was the first to describe a case of a baby who has dextrocardia with esophageal atresia and a complication with the trachea.
But doctors at Johns Hopkins say that children who have dextrocardia also often have other complications. They say online: “Dextrocardia on its own does not usually cause problems, but it tends to occur with other conditions that can have serious effects on the heart, lungs and other vital organs.”
Jamesyn’s dextrocardia was diagnosed in the spring of 2023, when her parents were sent for scans in Colorado after Ms. Anderson showed signs of restricted blood flow for seven weeks.
Describing the appointment, Mr Anderson said Cowboy State Diary that parents had to ask the doctor to leave the room when an abortion was recommended.
‘Is this going to be a problem for you?’ Mr Anderson asked his wife, ‘If she has physical or mental disabilities? Are you going to love the child any other way?
Mrs. Anderson said no, to which her husband replied, “Perfect.” We are on the same page.
The couple later told their doctor, “No matter how she was created and how she was born, that is God’s intention for her.”
The birth was complicated: Mrs Anderson suffered from pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure, risk of organ damage and losing more than half of her blood.
After dilation failed, Jamesyn was born by Caesarean section, at which time it was also learned that the placenta had grown through the lining of the uterus.
The new parents were only able to hold their daughter a month after birth, when she weighed three pounds.
Jamesyn underwent her 28th surgery today after doctors discovered food was leaking from her esophagus into her lungs.
The young woman’s esophageal condition also meant she had to be fed through intravenous lines inserted into her veins, which proved difficult because they were often hard to find.
In one case, an intravenous drip meant to feed her was placed down her throat, causing fluid to leak into her lungs, nearly leading to her suffocation.
Jamesyn was in the neonatal intensive care unit for the first four months of her life and underwent repeated surgeries to stretch her esophagus into her stomach.
At five months old, he almost lost his left hand after an infection caused by surgery caused him to turn blue and he came within an hour of needing an amputation.
On another occasion, doctors had to put her in a coma for two weeks.
At 11 months old, she was also airlifted from Wyoming to a hospital in Denver, Colorado, after she began having difficulty breathing.
His latest surgery was ordered after his recent hospitalization with RSV, norovirus and pneumonia that revealed food was leaking into his stomach.
At the moment, doctors are also feeding her through a tube inserted directly into her stomach, something necessary after she suffered an extreme bout of vomiting.
At 14 months, they managed to increase their weight to nine pounds.
The parents did not reveal how much the surgeries cost or whether they have health insurance, but Anderson said he now works several jobs to help cover the bills. Anderson also said she has to wake up several times during the night to give her daughter medication.
They are currently seeking donations at GiveSendGoand so far they have reached $18,700 of their $20,000 goal.
The parents have also created a prayer channel for her, which extends to South Korea, where a group of people regularly pray for their daughter.