Parents of baby misdiagnosed with terminal brain condition in utero left fate 'in God's hands'
Photo Courtesy: Ariann Corpstein
FOX NEWS - An Iowa couple who welcomed their first baby in July had been preparing to say goodbye to him since about halfway through their pregnancy after doctors diagnosed the unborn child with a terminal brain malformation. However, hours after Drew and Ariann Corpstein’s son was born, they learned that he had been misdiagnosed, and that his condition could be managed.
The Corpsteins, who suffered a miscarriage in 2016 before learning that they were pregnant with their son Matthew James, were told at 23 weeks gestation that their son had malformed brain tissue, the Des Moines Register reported. The couple, who are Christian, were told that the baby’s brain had not fully formed and that they could either abort the pregnancy, or induce early labor to terminate.
“During our 20-week ultrasound, which led to several others and a MRI quickly following, the doctors discovered our baby was missing most of his/her brain,” the Corpstein’s wrote on their GoFundMe page. “And instead of a brain, it was replaced with cerebral spinal fluid. The fluid was going to continue to expand the head of our baby. The head size was measuring about 3 weeks ahead of normal. We were told our baby wouldn’t live past several days, if not hours, or die before birth.”
The Corpsteins said that after the diagnosis, they began preparing to bury their child.