Mum Leanne Crawley reveals how her baby’s hidden twin left her battling lung cancer but why she’d go through it all again
Leanne Crawley, 38, thought she'd be spending time at home with her newborn - but son Louee ended up on life support before finding out a 'hidden second pregnancy left her needing life-saving treatment
IT SHOULD have been the happiest time of Leanne Crawley’s life.
But giving birth to second baby Louee sparked a series of traumas that ended with her being diagnosed with cancer.
He arrived “grey and lifeless” and was whisked to the antenatal unit where he spent three weeks on life support, with devastated Leanne, 38, at his side.
Then, six weeks after the birth, doctors found Louee had been “hiding” a second pregnancy.
His “twin” was not viable but had left behind a rare, fast-growing cancer — and the cells had spread to Leanne’s lungs.
While she should have been home with her newborn, she spent a month in hospital undergoing 20 blood transfusions followed by five months of chemotherapy.
Leanne, of Orpington, Kent, now in remission, says: “I had no idea I was pregnant with twins. Then to find out the unborn twin had turned to cancer was a lot to take. It was called a molar pregnancy and nearly killed us both.
“Doctors told me it was very rare that Louee survived because molar pregnancy twins often don’t. He’s our little miracle.”
Leanne, a full-time mum, fell pregnant with Louee a few months after giving birth to daughter Francesca, now two, with long-term partner Andrew Smith, 28.
Her scans looked normal — but Louee was not breathing when he arrived in December 2016.
She says: “He had to be resuscitated and it took doctors quite a time to bring him around. His brain had missed a lot of oxygen. His body was shutting down.”
Louee spent more than three weeks in hospital — on life support, in a cooling machine and in an incubator. His organs had begun to shut down due to losing 80 per cent of his blood and he was put in an induced coma and given donor blood to bring him back to health.
But Leanne says: “Two days after he came home, I was still bleeding heavily and was rushed to hospital where medics operated to remove what they thought was part of Louee’s placenta — but it was part of the molar pregnancy. It was terrifying. I had no idea what was going on.”
A molar pregnancy happens when a non-viable fertilised egg implants in the uterus. The one in Leanne was around the size of a three-month-old foetus.
Very rarely, twins are conceived and one develops normally from the healthy egg, as Louee did. The other turns into a “mole”.
The risk of a molar pregnancy turning into cancer is up to 15 per cent. Leanne says: “I was diagnosed with cancer a week after the molar pregnancy was discovered, when Louee was three months old. I should have been enjoying motherhood.
“After the operation to remove the molar pregnancy, they asked me if I wanted a funeral for Louee’s twin. It was a lot to take in — they never knew there were two in there. All you could see on the scan was Louee. But it turned out he had been hiding it all along, protecting me.”
Sadly, Louee’s presence delayed the diagnosis. Leanne says: “The cancer had spread to my lungs. They said they didn’t want it to get to my brain and I had chemo that night.”
Leanne went on to have 15 hours of chemo a week and 20 blood transfusions. She nearly died when a blood clot travelled to her lung while in hospital.
Just five weeks after Leanne started her chemo, she also lost her hair. She says: “It was horrible, a constant reminder I had cancer.
“When I woke up in the morning I would forget for a few seconds then I’d see myself in the mirror. Part of my identity had been taken away.”
Leanne got the all-clear last September but is still fighting back to fitness.
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She says: “Louee’s twin nearly killed us both. When I fell pregnant, I never thought that would be the outcome. But I had so much support from my friends and family.
“Obviously, though, I’d take it all again if it was a choice between me and Louee.”
STORY OF THE 'MOLE'
By Carol Cooper, Sun GP
A MOLAR pregnancy occurs when the fertilised egg fails to develop as it should. Instead of a foetus, there is a mass of cells similar to placenta cells.
This “mole” grows into a cluster of cysts and releases the hormone HCG, which causes morning sickness.
They can be part of a twin pregnancy but that is rare. The other twin can grow OK but molar cells often take over and harm it, so Louee was very lucky.
Molar pregnancies happen when there is a genetic problem with the fertilised egg.
Women who have had one are slightly more likely to have another next time around, but the vast majority do not.