A former British athlete gave birth to a baby girl two days after she died from brain hemorrhage. Jayne Soliman, a 41 years old British champion ice skater collapsed last Wednesday inside her bedroom after suffering from headache. She was brought to the hospital but was pronounced brain-dead.
At the Oxford’s John Radcliffe hospital, doctors managed to keep her heart beating long enough to deliver her baby girl by cesarean operation.
According to the doctors, Jayne suffered brain hemorrhage because of her tumor that struck a major blood vessel. She was given large dosage of steroids to help the child’ss lungs develop. Within 48 hours the child was born weighing 0.95 kg. Jayne’s husband Mahmoud was with her when the child was born.
Mahmoud recalled his wife’s last hours. ‘The doctors told me there was nothing they could do for Jayne but they needed her to stay strong for 48 hours to help our unborn child’
In 1989, Ms. Soliman was British champion and number seven in the world for professional free skating. She also spent some time in Dubai, where she taught figure skating and met Mahmoud. On returning to England two years ago, the newly married couple set up home in Bracknell and Jayne began working for the Bracknell Ice Skating Club, according to guardian.uk
‘David Philips, a friend and fellow skater, said Ms. Soliman has shown no sign that anything was wrong earlier in the day and did not know she had tumor. ‘Jayne and I had both been at the ice rink in Bracknell that day and she was absolutely fine, nothing seemed wrong. She was as happy as she could be because she was pregnant-it was her dream’ the report added.
Philips said her husband ‘has the best and the worst day of his life within such a short space of time-turning off your wife’s life support machine and then going to see your newborn daughter’
Ms. Soliman was laid to rest last weekend with about 300 attending the funeral at Jamia mosque in Reading.