August 5, 1999
There's a brand new baby in Ogden. And she's making medical history.
The child was carried full term OUTSIDE her mother's womb!
And, this one-in-a-million delivery caught the birthing team completely by surprise.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates reports from Ogden.
Three weeks ago Saige Dalton was supposed to be just another routine Caesarean birth at Ogden Regional Medical Center.
But when Dr. Jed Naisbitt made the cut and looked inside, the baby was wrapped in a thin membrane outside the womb.
Textbooks call this an ectopic pregnancy. Physicians usually recommend parents terminate these pregnancies early because the babies seldom live. Even the mother is at risk.
But what makes this case so rare is that not only did mother and baby survive-- they're both in perfect health.
LORI DALTON, MOTHER: "WELL, ACTUALLY I WAS IN SHOCK AND I'M STILL IN SHOCK BECAUSE IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE AND IT'S EVEN HARD TO UNDERSTAND."
John Dalton took home video inside the delivery room. Saige came out doing extremely well because even though she had been implanted outside the womb, a rich blood supply from a benign fibrous tumor along the outer uterus wall had nourished her with a rich source of blood.
The whole process may be too rare to even warrant a statistic.
JOHN DALTON, FATHER: "BUT AFTER TALKING TO DOCTORS AND NURSES AND FINDING OUT WHAT A RARETY IT IS... WE BEGAN TO APPRECIATE HOW SPECIAL SHE WAS AND THIS CASE WAS."
Through the whole pregnancy, physicians with all their technology had no idea the baby was out of place.
DR. JED NAISBITT, M.D. / OBSTETRICIAN: "BUT WHAT HAPPENED - WITH ALL THE TECHNOLOGY AND EVERYTHING, IT DIDN'T GET PICKED UP REALLY UNTIL RIGHT AT THE TIME OF HER DELIVERY."
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "IT'S DOUTFUL LORI AND JOHN WILL EVER OCCUPY A BIRTHING ROOM LIKE THIS AGAIN SINCE EVEN BEFORE SAIGE'S BIRTH, THEY HAD DECIDED NOT TO HAVE ANY MORE CHILDREN."
But what a way to end it - with such an incredibly bizarre and significant event.
