A miracle baby born without part of his brain has survived against the odds to celebrate his first birthday.
Danielle Frater, 28, said she was offered an abortion at 20 weeks because her unborn son, Koen Curtis, had no cerebellum—the part of the brain that plays a crucial role in motor control including movement and balance; he also had severe hydrocephalus—a build-up of fluid in the brain. Ms. Frater says she was told that if she went ahead with labor, her baby wouldn’t live long.
Devastated, Ms. Frater planned her unborn son’s funeral while she was pregnant but decided against the abortion, opting to let nature take its course. Every time she went to the hospital for a scan, she says doctors asked her if she wanted an abortion, but she defiantly said no.
“I don’t agree with abortions,“ said Ms. Frater, from Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. ”If I were to abort ... it would have been like murdering him.”
Baby Koen was born at 36 weeks. He needed surgery to put a shunt in his brain and miraculously survived.
Ms. Frater, who is a proud stay-at-home mom of five, says her 1-year-old son is now home from the hospital and is able to smile and play—skills medics thought he'd never learn.
“He’s doing brilliant; his hand coordination is brilliant,” she said. “They didn’t think he'd be able to do any of this. We were told he’d be severely disabled.
“The neurologist said his progress is amazing. His reflexes are not a problem. We don’t know if he’ll walk. I do believe he will in time. Developmentally, he’s at the stage of a 6-month-old.
“He’s still here. He’s a little fighter. Everyone’s like, ‘He’s a miracle.’ I would like to raise awareness for other parents that could be facing the same situation to not to give up on their babies as my child is [the] proof.”
Ms. Frater first realized things were not going to be easy when she was 20 weeks pregnant, in November 2022.
“There was no hope for him,” she said. They told me if he does make it through childbirth, he’ll have a short life span and be severely disabled. I broke down. I was sat on the bus home in tears.
“I was going to plan his funeral while I was pregnant. I just wanted it in place. I wouldn’t have been in the right frame of mind to plan it.”
On March 9, 2023, she gave birth to 7-pound baby Koen via cesarean section. To the doctors’ shock, Koen came out breathing, but he soon went “downhill.”
Doctors told Ms. Frater that Koen needed a high-risk surgery to fit a ventriculoperitoneal shunt. It would drain excess fluid from his head into his stomach, where it could be absorbed. She was told to prepare for the worst; to call her family to the hospital to say their last goodbyes.
She said: “I just broke down. I couldn’t think at all. I thought we were going to lose him. I didn’t think there was any hope at all. I didn’t think he would make it through the night. We took the risk and had the operation. We were told he wouldn’t survive. Babies that have what he’s got, they don’t tend to survive.”
But somehow Koen did, and after another operation on his stomach, he was discharged home after a total of seven weeks in care.
Ms. Frater’s partner, Delroy Palmer-Walker, a 34-year-old chef, took time off work to help with Koen, who needed “round-the-clock” care. According to Ms. Frater, the neurologist monitoring Koen’s recovery says he’s a “miracle baby.”
Two months after he was discharged, Koen started to smile.
Ms. Frater said she’s expecting more disabilities to emerge as Koen gets older: “They don’t know how long he’ll live for. We’re taking each day as it comes.”
